By Alexander Goss
The financial services sector operates within an increasingly complex regulatory landscape. New legislation, proposed policy changes, and ongoing debates about industry practices all affect a company’s operations and standing with the public, and also offer opportunities to build visibility and trust in a brand.
A 2022 study by the FINRA Foundation found that 72% of financial services executives believe government regulations have a “high” or “very high” impact on their business strategy. To manage this, financial services companies may have both government affairs (GA) specialists and lobbying firms to work on favorable policymaking. This is a sound approach, ensuring that experts who can navigate legalese and the halls of Congress are on the front lines.
However, the communications strategy around government regulations is all too often siloed and separated from decision-making in public relations programs. While this separation may be easier to manage internally, it weakens the overall communications function of Company, creating pitfalls and missed opportunities. Only by bringing PR and GA together can financial businesses maximize the impact they can have on these issues.
Internal Integration
Financial regulations are nuanced and require careful interpretation, and many organizations are subject to multiple overlapping jurisdictions. As a result, government affairs and lobbying teams are typically comprised of lawyers who interpret the regulations and communicate internally to stakeholders which regulations are most important.
PR professionals typically lack the training, time or experience to have a sufficiently deep understanding of the regulatory environment and risk misrepresenting a company’s position on critical issues. What PR professionals do have, however, is knowledge of how to leverage the media to support the effort by influencing regulators, advocacy groups, elected officials and their constituents.
In an industry where public trust is paramount, collaboration with government affairs teams, who closely monitor legislative developments, helps ensure PR messaging aligns with the company’s stance on regulations. This synergy can be seen in how major banks, facing increased scrutiny of lending practices, have proactively worked with their PR teams to address responsible lending and financial inclusion concerns.
By working with government affairs specialists, PR professionals can gain insights into the ongoing conversations financial services organizations are having with policymakers and regulators. This knowledge will empower them to develop messages that resonate with the public while accurately reflecting the company’s commitment to responsible practices within the established regulatory framework.
Building a Media-Friendly Message
As mentioned above, any PR professional who has taken the time to wade through a presentation built for a congressional committee knows that the messaging and structure of government affairs is very different from what the media is looking for. The legal language put together by GA professionals needs translation for a wider, less well-versed audience—both media and consumers.
The first job is ensuring the technical terms used will be understood. This might require using simpler language for some, providing examples, or even creating a glossary of terms that reporters can use for easy reference.
The second job is formulating an argument structure. The PR mandate is to use persuasive language that makes both rational and emotional arguments to the reader. While there may be some emotion in government affairs products, it certainly isn’t front and center. PR professionals are skilled in showing how proposed or current regulations are hampering the growth of a business sector—or, more importantly, harming the American consumer. Through emotional language and compelling examples, PR can add a new dimension to the argument.
When it comes to the rational argument, GA has it in spades. Sometimes, it’s actually too much. It’s not uncommon for a GA team to cite six statistics from four studies—all dutifully footnoted. This is anathema to PR, where only one or two examples are needed to do the job, or you risk losing the reader.
Once the language is tuned up, PR teams must have the GA experts double-check the work to ensure nothing conflicts with their efforts or was inadvertently misrepresented. After signoff, you’re ready for the media.
Taking the Message to the Media
PR teams can help the GA effort by sourcing media opportunities that take advantage of policy and political moments that will be important for the industry. This could be a hearing held by the Senate or a set of proposed regulations from the Securities and Exchange Commission. With that foreknowledge and the right language, high-profile media opportunities can be secured on broadcast outlets.
A spot on This Week with George Stephanopoulos is hard to come by, but there are shows hosted by Bloomberg, CNBC and Fox Business that are more influential in the business community. If you can explain to them how developments in Washington will impact an industry, you are already in a good position.
Similarly, the primary audience for government affairs teams is elected officials and their staff. Messages that are important to them are also important to consumers. As PR professionals, it is our job to frame the message in a way that reporters of different beats will care about, whether it be from a technology angle, impact on personal financial planning, or even employment in a state or city. This opens up a wide variety of media targets—from vertical industry publications and newsletters to local news and radio—to amplify your message.
Celebrities, foreign dignitaries and national elected officials often duke it out to get space in the opinion pages of The Washington Post and The New York Times. But if you take a step back to recalibrate, a regulations-oriented message can open up more possibilities for submitting op-eds in a variety of major newspapers or syndicated services. Often, reframing an argument to focus on how the industry that will be affected will generate more visibility for a brand than winning the coveted spot in the national outlet.
Siloed communication is always detrimental in the dynamic and often complex world of financial services. By fostering a collaborative environment where public relations and government affairs work hand-in-hand, financial services companies can present a unified voice that builds trust, navigates challenges, and ultimately positions them for success.
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This article was originally featured in O’Dwyer’s Public Relations News.