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Next-gen controls: From compliance to catalyst

September 22, 2025

Andy Banks

Partner, PwC Ireland (Republic of)

Internal controls now a catalyst for strategic growth

In an era defined by rapid digitisation, increasing regulations and growing stakeholder expectations, internal controls are undergoing a fundamental shift.

No longer confined to compliance, internal controls are being reimagined as strategic tools that – when implemented correctly – help organisations:

navigate complexity

embrace digital transformation

respond with agility

enhance resilience

improve decision-making

gain a competitive edge.

They’re especially effective when designed to address multiple risks at once, unlocking compliance and testing efficiencies across the board.

Why now?

Irish business leaders are navigating a landscape of accelerated transformation, rising risk and tightening regulation.

Internal controls are no longer just about compliance. They are essential to enabling agility, trust and resilience.

29% of Irish CEOs believe their organisation will not be viable beyond the next 10 years without reinvention, underscoring the urgency to embed controls that support transformation and innovation. (PwC’s 2025 Irish CEO Survey)

Internal controls must evolve to support bold strategic shifts, enabling innovation without compromising governance.

94% of Irish compliance leaders say their company has been negatively affected by regulatory complexity. That has been driven by evolving requirements across AML, data protection, sustainability reporting and financial services regulation, as well as by operational resilience frameworks (such as DORA and NIS2).

(PwC’s 2025 Global Compliance Survey – Irish Edition)

A modern internal control environment is essential to navigating overlapping regulatory demands while maintaining operational resilience.

74% of Irish organisations say cyber risk mitigation is a top priority in 2025, yet many still face challenges in areas such as third-party risk, incident response and data protection.

(PwC’s 2025 Global Digital Trust Insights Survey – Irish Edition)

Embedding cyber-focused controls across systems, processes and third-party relationships is now a board-level imperative.

48% of Irish organisations say they proactively take risks to create opportunities, but only 27% strongly feel they use technology and analytics to manage those risks effectively.
(PwC’s 2023 Global Risk Survey – Irish Edition).

Intelligent, data-driven controls can bridge this gap, enabling smarter, faster decisions with confidence.

82% of global investors in Irish companies see technological disruption as the top driver of business model change – placing pressure on firms to ensure their control environments can support innovation at scale. (PwC’s 2025 Global Investor Survey – Irish Edition)

Investors are watching closely. Strong internal controls signal readiness to scale innovation with discipline and transparency.

How internal controls are evolving

Traditionally viewed as a compliance checkbox, internal controls are now being reimagined as enablers of strategic execution. Leading organisations are shifting their mindset and redesigning their control environments to achieve multiple goals.

Embed controls into digital workflows - Controls are no longer added as afterthoughts. They’re built into automated processes, reducing manual effort and enabling real-time assurance.
Support agile decision-making - With better data visibility and control analytics, organisations can make faster, more informed decisions while managing risk proactively.
Drive operational efficiency - Streamlined, technology-enabled controls reduce duplication, improve accountability and lower the cost of compliance.
Build stakeholder trust - Investors, regulators, and customers expect transparency. Strong internal controls underpin the credibility of both financial and non-financial reporting.
Enable innovation at scale - As businesses adopt artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and platform-based models, internal controls provide the guardrails that allow innovation without compromising resilience.

“When controls are thoughtfully designed, they can be leveraged for multiple purposes; they unlock efficiency across multiple compliance areas. It’s about smarter assurance, not more testing.”

Andy Banks, GRC Leader, PwC Ireland

Leading Irish companies are taking these steps.

Organisations are prioritising control design that addresses multiple regulatory and operational risks simultaneously.

Whether during initial implementation or through ongoing optimisation, well-constructed controls can satisfy overlapping requirements, thereby reducing duplication – or even triplication, streamlining compliance enhancing testing efficiency.

By consolidating risk coverage, organisations can test once for multiple purposes, driving smarter assurance with fewer resources.

Leading organisations are moving beyond manual, detective controls toward automated, embedded controls within core systems and workflows. This reduces human error, increases efficiency, and enables scalability, particularly important as regulatory expectations grow more complex and data-driven.
Automation is no longer a future ambition—it’s becoming a baseline expectation for modern control environments.

CCM is gaining traction as a way to provide real-time assurance over control performance. By continuously monitoring transactions, configurations and user activity, organisations can detect anomalies early, reduce reliance on periodic testing and respond to respond to risks dynamically.

CCM transforms internal controls from static frameworks into living systems that evolve with the business.

As Irish organisations invest in digital transformation, leading firms are embedding internal controls into the design of new systems, processes and operating models rather than retrofitting them later.

This proactive approach ensures innovation is built on a foundation of control, not constrained by it.

Progressive organisations are shifting from centralised control ownership to a distributed model, where business units and process owners are accountable for control execution and monitoring.

This fosters a culture of accountability and ensures controls are aligned with day-to-day operations.

Reimagining digital-age internal controls

A shift from compliance focus to strategic growth

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