As the nation marks President Barack Obama’s 100th day in office, the financial services industry is adjusting to a business environment that is more closely regulated—with even more changes to come.

Those changes could put financial institutions in a crunch, as they lean toward favoring consumers, say consultants at Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, a Minneapolis, Minn.-based firm.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services cited a litany of recent changes, and ongoing discussions that bear this out: a mortgage reform bill that places tighter restrictions on non-prime mortgage lending and lender compensation; the potential regulation and registration of hedge funds; changes to rating agencies, and smoothing out rules between investment advisors and broker-dealers.

“Managing operational and compliance risks like fraud can no longer be viewed as a necessary evil,” said Amy Downey, senior regulatory consultant at Wolters Kluwer. “It has to be seen as a reality of doing business in today’s marketplace.”

“Regulators are feeling much more empowered than they were during the previous administration,” said Edward Kramer, executive vice president for Regulatory Programs at Wolters Kluwer Financial Services. “More stringent regulatory exams, a rising number of enforcement actions and the growing number of financial institutions closings during the first quarter of this year are evidence of that.”

The changes also impact the types of products that financial services firms offer their customers, observed Wolters Kluwer Financial Services. During the last few months more traditional products, such as whole lire and term life insurance policies have received growing interest from insurers.

“Insurers are looking at products that are less market sensitive,” said Kathy Donovan, senior compliance counsel for Insurance Compliance Solutions at Wolters Kluwer Financial Services. “Given that the SEC plans to regulate fixed indexed annuities as securities under Rule 151A, some insurers might put less focus on growth in that market and rework their offerings so they can minimize the chance that their products are identified as securities.”

The good news, says Neil Simon, vice president for government relations for the Investment Advisers Association, is that lawmakers and regulators appear to be applying their authority in reasonable ways. There is always a concern that as Congress and regulators respond to the economic and credit crisis, they could do so in an overly political way.

“To date, we think they’ve been approaching it in an deliberate and intelligent manner,” said Simon, referring to lawmakers and regulators.

“Regulators were much more tolerant when times were good,” said Downey. “But they’re not so much now that times aren’t so good. That’s not likely to change anytime soon.”