A stressed economy and new regulations propelled federal regulators to issue record levels of regulatory changes in 2011. Companies can expect those numbers to continue to rise in 2012, according to a recent report conducted by the Governance, Risk and Compliance business unit of Thomson Reuters.

According to the report, “The State of Regulatory Reform 2012,” companies around the world struggled to keep abreast of 14,215 regulatory changes from December to November 2011—more than 60 regulatory events each day. The report defines a regulatory event as everything from a speech, which may signal the direction of a new regulation, to a final binding rule.

The number of regulatory changes announced in 2011 marks a 16 percent increase from the 12,179 announcements in 2010. The regulatory changes have grown continuously, up from the 10,075 changes in 2009, and the 8,704 changes announced in 2008.

The majority of regulatory activity (57 percent) came from the United States, while the United Kingdom and Europe made up 22 percent, and Asia accounted for 15 percent, according to the report.  

While the Financial Services Authority and the Securities and Exchange Commission were the most active regulators in 2011, the major regulators in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Hong Kong accounted for just 20 percent of overall activity. Put differently, for every regulatory change made by one of the major regulators, there were four from the rest,” said Scott McCleskey, global head of financial services regulation, Thomson Reuters GRC.

The takeaway: Firms that focus solely on the major regulators “run the risk of missing possibly vital changes from other sources,” McCleskey said.

Most regulatory changes, however, have yet to be done, as companies prepare for more regulatory reforms under the Dodd-Frank Act, the report cautions. The report estimated that up to 80 percent of Dodd-Frank rulemaking is yet to be completed.

“Our analysis illustrates the magnitude of the challenge facing businesses globally and the need for them to keep abreast of what is going on in each and every market in which they operate,” said McCleskey. “This growth in activity also has an effect on the level of compliance spending, which is bound to rise, leaving less to lend, invest, and do the other core activities which will be necessary to revive the global economy.”