- Read part 1: Balancing resilience and right-sized investments
- Read part 2: Building cybersecurity capabilities in regulated environment
In this final part, I’ll turn the spotlight to a challenge that underpins both resilience and security efforts: how to maintain business agility while navigating complex compliance and regulatory requirements. As financial organisations modernise, the ability to innovate quickly without compromising control or compliance is what truly defines long-term success.
Compliance, regulation, and business agility: A constant balancing act for financial institutions
One of the challenges we see in the finance sector is balancing regulatory compliance with the need for business growth and innovation. Regulations today demand that compliance isn’t just a checklist but must be deeply embedded into daily operations and decision-making. As financial organisations modernise and move services to the cloud, it’s critical to ensure regulatory requirements flow seamlessly into technology, processes, and governance models. Successfully weaving compliance into operations is what keeps institutions both competitive and secure.
Finding the right balance between business agility and control isn’t easy. Financial institutions are under pressure to deliver modern, user-friendly digital services while meeting strict regulatory demands. We often see how this tension can slow down development or create friction between teams if not addressed properly. Helping organisations stay flexible without sacrificing control has become a key part of building a sustainable, compliant future.
Another layer of complexity comes from the need for clear segregation of duties across development, operations, and compliance. While cloud development typically embraces agile, DevOps-driven practices, financial institutions need to adapt these models carefully to fit regulatory expectations. In our experience, the organisations that succeed are those that embed security and compliance early into the development lifecycle, for example with DevSecOps, making them a natural part of the process rather than an afterthought. Building a culture where everyone shares responsibility for security and compliance is what truly drives success.
Recommended approach in short
Agile development in the financial sector is possible when regulatory requirements are embedded into the development process from the start, rather than treated as a separate or final step. This means involving compliance, risk, and security stakeholders early in the development lifecycle, and building cross-functional teams where regulatory expertise is readily available. Practices like DevSecOps, automated policy enforcement, and security-as-code help teams move quickly while staying compliant. Agile doesn’t mean ignoring regulation – it means integrating it into fast, iterative cycles with clear accountability
Also, the key to success is to shift compliance left, just like we do with testing and security in modern software delivery. This involves automating controls where possible (e.g., using cloud-native guardrails, infrastructure policies, and audit logging) and maintaining clear documentation and traceability through pipelines. It also requires segregation of duties, but adapted for agile: for example, separating responsibilities across roles and approval gates rather than silos. By doing this, teams can maintain both speed and trust while delivering secure, compliant services without slowing innovation.
Key takeaways from the blog series
- Disaster recovery strategies and capabilities must combine technology, people, and processes along with regular testing to truly ensure business resilience.
- Right-sizing DR strategies and clearly identifying which business solutions require the highest level of resilience helps ensure that resilience and investment levels are properly aligned.
- Cloud offers superior cybersecurity capabilities, enabling strong protection even in hybrid environments (on-prem + cloud). Leveraging cloud for its security strengths is especially valuable.
- In the financial sector, segregation of duties must be understood and respected when developing cybersecurity. Security must be addressed both at the operational level and through high-level frameworks (policies, principles, governance).
- Adapting agile practices to the financial sector requires a deep understanding of regulatory boundaries. Agile methods must be tailored to ensure compliance while still enabling the business to evolve with the market.
If you’re planning or already navigating your cloud journey, we’re happy to share what we’ve learned and support you in solving the toughest parts securely, pragmatically and in line with your regulatory environment. Don’t hesitate to contact me or Juuso Lehto.