IT managers in the UK financial services sector fear they could miss the key deadline to provide support for the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) new reporting rules, that come into force in April 2005.

A survey by IT services company Aspective found that nearly two-thirds think the FSA has underestimated the complexity of its regulations, while over three-quarters do not believe that the industry can fulfil its obligations.

At issue is the FSA's 04/09 policy statement that sets out new standards for reporting of sales, financial and compliance data for insurance, mortgage and similar products. IT managers say that integrating multiple data sources, combined with the complexity of the regulations, present major obstacles to compliance.The FSA policy requires companies to prepare their data for regular financial audits.

The submission policy will be enforced in July 2005, but the deadline for data collection is 1 April 2005.

Over half (55%) of the IT managers interviewed think that it will be "very difficult or impossible" to meet their regulatory compliance deadlines.