Thomson Reuters Launches Governance, Risk and Compliance Unit

Thomson Reuters today announced the creation of a new business dedicated to serving customers across the span of governance, risk and compliance. The new business brings together Thomson Reuters brands including Complinet, Paisley, Westlaw Business, West's Capitol Watch, Oden and Westlaw Compliance Advisor. It will be led by Thomson Reuters' former chief strategy officer David Craig, who has been named president.

The GRC unit delivers to financial institutions, insurance and other firms the most comprehensive suite of tools designed to connect business transactions, strategy and operations to the regulatory environment. It brings together Thomson Reuters' global regulatory and securities intelligence; business law research; contract and deal-drafting tools; internal policy management; e-learning; anti-money laundering solutions; and audit, filing, board of director and disclosure services.

According to Craig, regulators have responded assertively following the financial crisis, and also to reduce risk and crime. "In 2009 we tracked more than 10,000 regulatory changes across financial services regulators globally," he said. "As of the beginning of September, 2010, we have already tracked the same number of regulatory updates. This reflects more than 50 changes every working day, and I expect the 2010 total likely will be 50 percent higher than last year. Additionally, we estimate that the new regulatory changes in the U.S. could create an additional 100,000 disclosures. In 2009, we tracked more than 200,000 disclosure documents filed by public companies in the U.S."