RegTech Round-up

In our latest episode of RegTech Roundup - Financial Crimes edition, we delve into the challenges surrounding the collection of beneficial ownership data through centrally administered registries. Joining our host, Charlene Sebastian, in the discussion are Jennifer Arnold, Co-Founder & CEO of Minerva, and Matthew Van Buskirk, Co-Founder & CEO Regulatory, Hummingbird RegTech. While centrally administered registries have the potential to enhance the overall data ecosystem, progress in this area has been slow. Data accuracy, currency, verifiability, privacy concerns, and the high cost of maintaining a central registry have hampered implementation progress. Financial institutions (FIs) are now questioning the value of these registries if they cannot reliably address their Know Your Customer (KYC), Customer Due Diligence (CDD), and risk assessment requirements. Consequently, FIs are realizing the need to strengthen and streamline their beneficial ownership programs independently, without relying solely on registries as a solution.  This discussion explores how FIs can harness AI-curated open-source data and workflow integrations to optimize their beneficial ownership data collection processes. By doing so, they can enhance compliance and generate additional revenue through improved data management and utilization. Please tune in to discover strategies for navigating this evolving landscape effectively with insights from our expert panelists, Jennifer Arnold and Matthew Van Buskirk.

Trade surveillance is a critical component of today's financial world, where regulations are ever-evolving. It's not just about keeping an eye on trades; it's about ensuring compliance, detecting anomalies, and mitigating risks effectively. Our guest, Martina Rejsjo, Head of Product Strategy at Eventus, shares insights into the complex challenges faced in the world of trade surveillance. With the financial industry operating in multi-asset class environments, including equities, options, futures, FX, fixed income, and digital assets, the need for comprehensive solutions is paramount. In a rapidly evolving financial landscape, staying ahead of regulatory changes and market dynamics is a formidable challenge. Join us in this podcast as we delve into the complexities of trade surveillance, the advancements in solutions and the transformative power of AI in improving outcomes for financial institutions worldwide. Host: Charlene Sebastian, Vice President of the CRTA Board and Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Minerva

In the latest episode of our ESG Series, host Donna Bales speaks with Ajay Jindal, Executive Vice President at Decimal Point Analytics about his recent paper - Canada ESG Review 2023. This paper benchmark's Canada's progress against its global peers - showing a significant divergence between progress in asset management and the real economy.

In this episode we discuss the potential of reducing regulatory burden through the implementation of Machine-Readable Regulation. Machine Readable regulation is not a new concept but there has been renewed interest by the industry due to its potential to enhance compliance and risk management and reduce regulatory burden.  In 2016 the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK hosted a Tech Sprint that looked at the whole process of regulatory reporting starting with converting the Handbook into machine-readable text and using this to enable automated advice or personalized filtering. In October 2022  FINRA in the US announced they are using the technology to make their rulebook easier to navigate by building a taxonomy and search tool called FIRST - to help all users (whether human or machine)  easily identify and search applicable rules… And as you will learn in this podcast – regulators from India are also exploring the use of machine readable regulation. Joining me on the podcast today is Shailesh Dhuri, CEO and Founder, of Decimal  Point. Analytics. Decimal Point Analytics provides consulting and market research services and leverages data and artificial intelligence and machine learning  to assist clients with financial research, analysis, modelling, and risk management. Shailesh  is a highly sought-after leader and Innovator in the space of real life applications of artificial intelligent technology that are used in massive data, quantitative, statistical analysis, and algorithms.  

In our latest podcast in the ESG Series, host Donna Bales speaks with Eugenie Casier GRC Director from Clausematch. In this episode they discuss the elements of a ESG strategy, the importance of a setting a purpose and using it as a foundation for your ESG Program. Clausematch is a global regulatory technology software as service provider. The platform empowers companies to collaborate, create, manage and review different types of compliance documents, in real time, with a complete audit trail and live insights, advanced metadata, AI-powered mapping and tagging, intelligent suggestions and workflows, leading to more robust governance.

In this episode of RegTech Round-up, host Donna Bales speaks to Gerry Murtagh, co-founder of RegTick. In this episode they discuss best practices and key focus areas to address some of the organizational challenges of developing a successful ESG Program. Gerry shares several techniques that RegTick uses to reduce complexity - such as VMOST to structure a ESG program, Empathy Mapping to understand your stakeholders and an ESG Health Check to test the health of your ESG program. Be sure to tune in to hear more! Regtick is a visually intuitive, cloud-based, Programme Management platform which simplifies the management of complex regulatory and strategic transformation programs - enabling firms to reduce compliance risk, project cost and uncertainty.

The financial industry has undergone a significant transformation in recent years, with the accelerated shift to digitized services having a profound impact on the banking landscape. Not only has it changed the way financial institutions operate, but it has also affected anti-money laundering risks and financial crime prevention measures across the enterprise. As a result, there has been a marked shift in focus from traditional risk management practices to enhanced business resilience. This new approach emphasizes the importance of preparing for and quickly adapting to potential disruptions to critical financial infrastructure and services. Early adopters of this approach are expected to gain a competitive advantage as they streamline critical services and help to strengthen the wider financial market infrastructure. Regulators in the European Union have expanded the scope of the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) to include obligations designed to ensure that financial institutions' business lines remain operationally resilient against various categories of risk. Similarly, in Canada, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has issued updated Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) guidance and plans to hold a public information session on operational risk and resilience in the first quarter of 2023, with a view to publishing draft revised guidance for consultation in Spring 2023. In this episode Charlene Sebastian, Head of Client Success at MinervaAI talks with Denis Nwanshi, Founder of NetraScale, and the future of secure digital banking research initiative, NetraBank, to explore the intersection between operational resilience and financial crime prevention, with a particular emphasis on the role of next-generation technologies. These technologies can help protect critical financial infrastructure and services while enhancing capabilities for financial crime detection. The use of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain can aid in detecting fraudulent activities and mitigating risks. Additionally, the integration of these technologies can help to enhance financial institutions' compliance with regulatory requirements and safeguard against potential threats to their reputation. Denis is an accomplished executive specializing in delivering mission-critical digital platforms, data-driven products and automated infrastructure for highly regulated institutions. He founded NetraScale in 2014, providing high-impact cloud-native architectures and enterprise integration services to clients in the banking, insurance,  retail/commerce and public sectors. With practical knowledge of fintech, regtech, payments modernization, cyber security, operational resilience, and a wide range of next-generation technologies and data management strategies, he has expanded his business to build AI-enabled niche platforms centered on innovation, security and sustainable business value. Denis is a strong advocate for mentoring, design thinking, and agile-lean principles. In his spare time, he enjoys organizing interactive tech talks, panel discussions and hackathons.

In this episode of RegTech Round-up, Charlene Sebastian, Head of Client Success at MinervaAI and strategic advisor to the Canadian RegTech Association (CRTA), talks with Anthony Quinn, Founder and CEO of Arctic Intelligence, a multi-award-winning RegTech firm specializing in software for enterprise-wide audit, compliance, and risk management related to financial crime, about how firms can dramatically simplify the EWRA by maximising their data and using technology to automate the process; to reduce residual risk exposure and be more strategic in the application of enterprise risk controls to improve operational processes, remove bias and drive revenue. Anthony also highlights key findings from the Arctic Intelligence 2022 AML Industry Benchmarking report.

Money laundering and terrorism financing laws apply to millions of businesses, across 30+ industry sectors, and in over 200 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) member countries. And yet, there is no industry standard on how businesses should apply the risk-based approach (RBA) when developing Enterprise-wide money laundering and terrorism financing risk assessments. In this episode of RegTech Round-up, Charlene Sebastian, Head of Client Success at MinervaAI and strategic advisor to the Canadian RegTech Association (CRTA), talks with Anthony Quinn, Founder and CEO of Arctic Intelligence, a multi-award-winning RegTech firm specializing in software for enterprise-wide audit, compliance, and risk management related to financial crime, about how firms can dramatically simplify the EWRA by maximising their data and using technology to automate the process; to reduce residual risk exposure and be more strategic in the application of enterprise risk controls to improve operational processes, remove bias and drive revenue. Anthony also highlights key findings from the Arctic Intelligence 2022 AML Industry Benchmarking report. Many organisations struggle to identify and assess their risks and vulnerabilities to financial crime and as a result may not design, implement and maintain controls that are appropriate and proportionate to these risks.  More often than not enterprise-wide risk assessments (EWRAs) are conducted manually on spreadsheets, which are often not fit for purpose and take too long to complete, resulting in risks being presented to Boards that are more likely than not, out of date.

March is Fraud Prevention month!   Digital Identification Verification (IDV) technologies play a critical role in preventing and detecting identity fraud. Through document verification and liveness checks, IDV solutions can be used to address a number of regulatory identification and know your customer requirements.    While embraced by many digital banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, as part of a frictionless customer on-boarding experience and to automate key anti-money laundering (AML) requirements; traditional banking, wealth management services and credit unions have been slower to implement IDV solutions, citing cost, accuracy and complexity challenges.   In this episode of RegTech Round-up, Charlene Sebastian, strategic advisor with the Canadian RegTech Association (CRTA) Head of Client Success at MinervaAI, chats with Gene DiMira, a Canadian Anti-Money Laundering and Digital Identity pioneer, and Leigh Day, Business Development Manager for Yoti, a leading digital identity provider, about IDV: what it is (and what it’s not), and how you can seamlessly meet critical regulatory requirements. We also demystify some of the key challenges and perceived barriers to implementation and discuss how to prepare for a successful IDV launch. This episode was sponsored by: Yoti ⁠https://www.yoti.com/

In this episode of ESG Insights, host Donna Bales, speaks with Johnny Mattimore, Global Head of Risk and Sustainable Finance at First Derivatives.  We look at ESG from a risk lens - examining regulatory drivers, the maturity of capital market participants in understanding ESG exposures and how we can avoid past mistakes by using open source and proxy data and collaborative efforts for baseline data. Johnny shares First Derivatives efforts in establishing a technology cohort to work on an open source sustainable finance taxonomy - to create open source data models of regulations and have them peer reviewed reducing duplication. 

The integration of digital assets into our global financial system continues to raise many questions. Has crypto hit the mainstream? If so, what regulations should apply? Should characteristics of the underlying technology play a role in how it’s regulated? And can crypto ever be truly regulated at all? In this episode, Charlene Sebastian Head of Client Success at MinervaAI and Strategic Advisor with the CRTA, talks with Tim Ward, Head of Product at CUBE a global regulatory insights firm based in the United Kingdom about their latest report “Cryptopia: Regulation and Crypto on a Cliff Edge” to explore the answers to these questions and more.

In this episode, host Paul McRorie speaks with Blythe Barber Head of Business Development, Americas from Droit and Loren Schwartz, Senior Director of Regulatory Technology from CIBC.  They discuss the merits of buying versus building in house and how API's have introduced opportunities to integrate but they do not come without challenges. 

In this episode our host, Matt Fowler, speaks with Michael Barton from Invest Northern Ireland and Paul Childerhose (CRTA Board Member and Membership Engagement lead) about the opportunities that exist for firms large and small to leverage the growing tech and data talent in and around Belfast. With a growing need to manage common regulatory challenges Invest Northern Ireland, and the CRTA, are able to help firms find the right services, solutions and talent. As the flow of regulation, and often innovation, moves across Europe towards North America hear how you can find the right support for your growth and success as distance and boarders create less and less friction to your success.

In this episode, host Myron Mallia-Dare speaks with Abishek Gupta from Sutra Management Consulting. Sutra Management Consulting is a analytics driven advisory focusing on assisting their clients deploy analytic and AI solutions.  In this inspiring episode Abishek explains how they recognized the gap of knowledge at the operational level at organizations trying to deploy AI and how they seized this opportunity early in Asia.  Now expanding into North America, Abishek shares their company journey and some of the key differences of working in Asia versus North America. 

In this episode host Myron Mallia-Dare speaks with Tolga Kurt, Managing Partner of H3M Analytics. H3M is a AI-based AML software for KYC, AL and Sanctions. Now on his second start-up Tolga walks us through his motivation for starting H3M in 2018 - and his desire to use AI for the greater good and describes how the software uses active learning and ‘human-in-the loop’ to improve AML compliance to continually improve models and detection

In this episode our host Myron Milla-Dare speaks with Emmanuel (Manny) Cohen, CEO and Founder of Armadillo Group. Manny talks through his 25 year journey building his company - digging into his own pockets for funding - overcoming the skeptics and being a leader in bringing new tools and techniques into the KYC and due diligence process.  Armadillo Hub, is a scalable, cloud–based, end-to-end automated RegTech platform, giving global regulated businesses the tools to conduct the appropriate background checks on corporate and private clients. The platform leverages cloud and robotic process automation to manage the large data needed to perform due diligence and they are progressing in the use of AI and blockchain capabilities 

In this episode host Paul McRorie speaks with Ally Karmali, Associate Partner and Practice Lead in IBM Sustainability, Risk and Compliance and Martijn Groot, VP Marketing and Strategy, Alveo Technology. With Martijn providing a European perspective and Ally a North American perspective, they discuss the evolving regulatory and standards landscape and common data challenges  such as the availability and usability of data. They provide their views on how banks are responding to mandatory and voluntary disclosure requirements and how to get ahead. Ally sets up a future podcast by discussing Canada's unique opportunity to take the lead and expand data reporting to consider how industries are generating business and its impact on the environment and the  indigenous community. 

In this episode, host Paul McRorie speaks with Parham Nasseri, VP Regulatory Strategy and Partnerships at InvestorCOM and Noel Sequiera, Manager, Membership Intake & Business Conduct Compliance at IIROC.  Noel and Parham discuss the changing landscape in wealth management. They discuss some of the new trends such as greater customization, new product impact, and the use of gamification tools, the role of the industry and the regulators in educating investors and how they see the wealth industry evolving. 

In this podcast Paul McRorie speaks with Torstein Braaten, Head of Regulatory Affairs & CCO,  Bitbuy and Joe Schifano, Global Head of Regulatory Affairs, Eventus Systems. Listen as they explore regulation and market structure nuances between traditional markets  and crypto or digital assets. They dig into the differences but also highlight the many similarities and discuss the techniques and tools used to effectively surveil this evolving market segment.