It’s one year since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was introduced (25 May 2018) and, according to a new survey by Intelliflo, its introduction impacted the daily business of nine out of 10 firms but just one in five say it had a major impact.
The survey of 170 users of Intelligent Office found:
- 20% reported that preparing for GDPR had a major impact on their daily business
- 70% said it had some impact.
- 8% said it had no impact
- 2% couldn’t say
Asked about the number of breaches their firm has had to report to clients, prospects or the regulator, the survey found:
- 83% had reported no breaches
- 13% had reported between one and five breaches
- 4% didn’t know
Asked how regularly employees receive formal training on data protection and/or the GDPR, the survey found:
- 73% receive it once a year
- 17% received it just once, when the GDPR came into force in May 2018
- 8% receive it every six months
- 2% never receive it in a formal way
In January 2019, Intelliflo reported that the introduction of the GDPR had been a significant driver for advisers to adopt new technology, with the firm increasing its Intelligent Office client base by 399 firms, giving it over 22,700 users.
One of the key attractions for advisers with Intelligent Office is its client portal, the Personal Finance Portal (PFP), which is automatically available to all its users. The portal allows advisers to exchange messages with customers in a secure way, along with other benefits such as giving customers 24/7 access to their specific asset data.
The service has been available since 2015 but the introduction of GDPR rules noticeably accelerated the number of advisers engaging with customers to use the portal.
Nick Eatock, Intelliflo’s Executive Chairman comments: “It’s no surprise that advisers are reporting that the GDPR had an impact on their daily working lives – the risks of getting it wrong and the compensation costs that could bring has meant doing nothing is not an option. Registrations to PFP increased by almost 70% last year, driven by adviser awareness that email is no longer good enough to communicate with customers. Being able to offer secure messaging across PCs and mobile devices is becoming something that people expect as standard. Without a doubt the GDPR was a catalyst for advisers to embrace technology and remove some of the stress associated with complying with the regulation.”
