The 2015 compliance climate is warming up rapidly, and former financial regulator Pam Perdue recently registered the first quarter temperature as a BCI of 1.35.

BCI stands for Bank Compliance Index, a quarterly evaluation system created by financial experts at Continuity (formerly Continuity Control), a New Haven, Conn.-based provider of automated compliance solutions, to track the incremental burden on financial institutions of keeping up with regulatory changes. The number 1.35 represents the number of employees needed to address just the new regulations issued during the first three months of 2015.

"We wish we could abate this constant flow of compliance information," Perdue, Continuity's executive vice president of regulatory insight, told participants in the company's April 9 online quarterly compliance webinar, "but Washington isn't doing us any favors."