The recently passed U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) has proven tough for some financial institutions to keep up with. Thankfully, the collaborative effort of Mahindra Satyam and Dion Global Solutions has borne fruit, and today, the announced new product from the two companies--FATCA TRAC--should go a long way in terms of keeping institutions in Australia and New Zealand alike on track.

FATCA TRAC offers firms a fully featured solution in terms of keeping abreast of FATCA requirements, including client classification systems, withholding functions and reporting tools to be used as necessary. Using FATCA TRAC will allow users to go from complying with FATCA to complying with regulations under an IGA, while having no discernible impact on the overall compliance program.

Since Mahindra Satyam is a global consulting service as well as IT service provider, and Dion has a particular focus on providing solutions in the banking and financial service industries, the combination of the two firms goes a long way in terms of providing the best, most flexible solutions for users to be better equipped to take on a regulatory environment whose terms are, at best, constantly changing.

FATCA TRAC makes particular sense for many institutions as it can not only be put into current systems seamlessly--making for much more rapid FATCA compliance than under normal circumstances--but can also allow institutions to be better prepared for the future, especially should the institution in question be operating in several jurisdictions and thus have to be ready to meet the terms of an IGA in the future.

Mahindra Satyam and Dion Global Solutions are currently rolling out FATCA TRAC in North America and are planning the expansion for Australia and New Zealand for the near term future, thus those institutions for whom FATCA may be an issue may want to look into getting in on the release.

With the increasing complexity of the regulatory environment as a whole being not only a likely proposition but a near certainty--it's not likely that future government efforts will include making regulations simpler and easier to handle--being prepared to operate in such an environment is going to be extremely important for any institution. While not every business in the field may find FATCA TRAC to be the silver bullet solution that dreams are made of, it's a safe bet that, for most, FATCA TRAC will do the job and then some. The ability to expand outward and easily integrate with current systems should make FATCA TRAC particularly desirable, and the backgrounds of both Mahindra Satyam and Dion Global Solutions should signal a solid development approach that will work out well for those companies concerned.

It's an increasingly difficult regulatory environment out there; being prepared with systems like FATCA TRAC is a prudent response to same.