Managing data retention in the Regulations Registry is essential for legal compliance, audit readiness, and risk mitigation. It helps ensure traceability, supports GDPR requirements, and protects against legal and reputational risks.
To define the retention period:
- Open the Regulation Registry Settings app in SAP Risk and Assurance Management.
- Click Edit, then set the Age of Data for fields like Created By, Updated By, and Retired Regulations.
This ensures outdated regulation data is managed properly while staying aligned with compliance requirements.
In the following steps, we’ll walk through the process of creating a new regulation in SAP Risk and Assurance Management.
After establishing your organizational hierarchy and documenting core business processes, the next essential step in building a robust internal control system is to define your regulatory framework.
At the core of every effective risk and compliance strategy is a clear understanding of the regulations that govern your operations. To manage the complexity of these requirements, SAP Risk and Assurance Management offers the Regulations Registry functionality.
The Regulations Registry functionally serves as your centralized compliance hub which is a structured, digital repository for all regulatory requirements relevant to your organization. Whether you're managing international data protection laws or internal codes of conduct, this functionality enables you to record, organize, and activate your obligations in a consistent and auditable way.
Your compliance journey begins by identifying and documenting a regulation within SAP Risk and Assurance Management. This could be:
- An external regulation, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
- An internal policy, such as a corporate ethics guideline.
Each regulation entry acts as a container for related compliance requirements.
- Example:
- Create a regulation titled GDPR – Data Privacy to manage all data privacy rules applicable to your European operations.
Once the regulation is created, the next step is to break it down into specific, actionable requirements. These requirements translate broad legal or policy mandates into concrete steps your teams must follow.
For example, under GDPR, requirements may include:
- "Consent must be obtained before processing personal data."
- "Data subjects must be able to access, correct, or delete their information."
- "All personal data must be encrypted during transmission."
By documenting requirements in this way, SAP Risk and Assurance Management allows you to convert legal language into operational controls that are practical and measurable.
After defining your regulations and requirements, you can activate them in SAP Risk and Assurance Management. Activation moves them from draft to active status, making them available for integration across your compliance framework.
Once activated, regulations can be published, making them visible and accessible to stakeholders across the organization. Publishing formalizes the regulation, establishing it as an enforceable component of your risk and compliance environment.
Seamless Integration Across SAP Risk and Assurance Management
One of the key strengths of the Regulations Registry is its ability to integrate with other components of SAP Risk and Assurance Management. Once published, regulations and their requirements can be:
- Mapped to controls, ensuring that operational activities are aligned with compliance needs.
- Used in control testing, supporting structured audits and continuous compliance monitoring.
This integration supports a closed-loop compliance process, connecting obligations with controls, ownership, testing, and reporting.
With this capability, organizations can transform complex regulations into clear, actionable requirements and ensure each compliance element is well-documented. This structured approach enhances auditability, supports regulatory reviews, and fosters a culture of transparency and trust across the business.
For more details, visit the official SAP Help Portal: Regulations Registry Overview | SAP Help Portal
Let’s see how this looks in SAP Risk and Assurance Management.