WILMINGTON, DE — International expansion is creating a substantially heavier legal and compliance workload than mergers and acquisitions for companies operating across borders, according to a CSC survey in which 74% of senior professionals identified market entry or expansion as a leading execution burden, compared with 28% who cited M&A transactions.
The findings point to the operational complexity that follows a decision to enter a new market, particularly around entity formation, governance, ownership records, banking, tax registrations and ongoing compliance.
CSC’s report, The Cross-Border Readiness Gap: Navigating the Legal and Compliance Burden of International Expansion, surveyed 200 senior professionals with direct experience in cross-border transactions, expansion, restructuring and entity or compliance work.
Ongoing entity governance and compliance was cited as a major burden by 71% of respondents.
Incomplete or outdated information is also driving rework. Fifty-four percent of respondents reported often repeating work because entity or ownership information was missing, outdated or inconsistent, while another 44% encountered the problem sometimes.
Entity setup was the most commonly cited individual friction point, at 63%, while 51% identified duplicated work as the biggest source of coordination problems.
“The real complexity of international expansion often comes after the initial decision to enter a market,” Myrna Reijnders, CSC’s market leader for the Americas, stated. “Once you enter a new market, you still have to get the entities, directors, bank accounts, tax registrations, and ongoing compliance right.”
Half of respondents reported that problems involving entity, compliance or ownership information can add one to two weeks to cross-border work. Another 16% reported delays of three to four weeks.
Bank account opening and know-your-customer checks were cited by 48% as sources of rework, additional legal effort or delay.
Organizations are responding by tightening process ownership and standardizing documentation. Sixty-six percent of respondents reported assigning a clear owner for cross-border work, 60% are creating standardized “ready-to-close” information packs and 53% are involving compliance teams earlier.
Another 44% are outsourcing more specialist work, while 43% are investing in entity management technology.
“For in-house teams, the challenge is often less about understanding what needs to be done and more about coordinating it efficiently across multiple markets,” CSC Chief Legal and Risk Officer Ian McConnel stated.
The survey suggests the principal execution risk in cross-border expansion is increasingly tied not to the initial transaction itself but to maintaining accurate information and coordinating legal, compliance and governance obligations across jurisdictions.
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