With financial regulation constantly changing, banks and financial institutions are under constant pressure to keep up to speed with the latest rules.
Read more: Keeping the banks honest: meet the regtech rule-obeyers
Now, a new wave of technology is emerging to help these organisations make sure they understand the rules and can manage their risks.
The term 'regtech' was coined in 2015 by the Financial Conduct Authority, which described it as “a sub-set of FinTech that focuses on technologies that may facilitate the delivery of regulatory requirements more efficiently and effectively than existing capabilities".
Now, regtech takes on a variety of meanings depending on the person defining it. Generally, the portmanteau refers to any company developing agile technology that can help financial companies to better comply with regulations.
In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, financial regulators wanted to ensure the industry would not face the same problems again. New regulations were put in place to improve risk controls, maintain capital and create a more transparent financial sector.
With an increased focus on managing risk and complying with stricter rules, the financial industry needed to find new ways to adapt. On top of this, technology was advancing; meaning much more was possible.
Regtech companies were born out of this combination of regulatory change and more efficient technology.
Now, there is a range of companies offering these kinds of services. Some offer solutions for banks to help them comply, while others are aimed at helping policymakers monitor those they are regulating.
Sybenetix, for example, makes behavioural analytics software to monitor individuals in financial institutions, looking out for things like unusual behaviour or suspicious activity that could be a sign of misconduct. Banks, hedge funds, exchanges or even regulators can use the technology.
Another example is AlgoDynamix, a risk analytics company that detects disruptive events in financial markets. It uses a set of algorithms to predict price movements in advance.
Diana Paredes is cofounder of Suade, launched in 2014 to help banks analyse their own practices, then modify them to comply with complex and changing regulatory requirements.
When the financial crisis hit, Paredes was working at Merrill Lynch. “It had a profound impact on my life and my belief system about the trading floor,” Paredes told WIRED.
By taking the time to understand changing regulations and developing technology that helps businesses comply, Suade hopes to save banks and financial institutions time and money.
Suade provides technology for banks to ensure they are always compliant with regulation, with a focus on flexibility. Since regulation is often changing, it is important to develop technology that can adapt to these changes.
One of the biggest uncertainties regarding the future of financial regulation surrounds what will happen when the UK leaves the EU in 2019.
Many of the changes for UK-based companies might have negative consequences, and involve multiple regulatory swings. But Paredes says for regtech, “Brexit is also a brilliant opportunity”.
Because technology like Suade's is adaptable and can transform quickly, it will likely become an important tool for banks she predicts. “Regtech is all about minimising uncertainty,” Paredes says.
Suade is also pushing for a more transparent banking sector, with the introduction of open source standards for financial data. While every bank and institution in the UK, for example, may have a different method of collecting certain data, the laws applying to them all are the same.
Because each company has evolved to collect this data separately, the differences in their methods can be so vast it makes the exchange of data between firms and regulators complicated and prone to error. To make the process more efficient, companies would need a common format.
Suade’s FIRE format for financial data is aimed at becoming a common structure for all financial data, ensuring each piece of regulation is met. This includes any data that must be gathered for supervision and monitoring.
The FIRE code samples are licensed under an Apache 2.0 License, which allows customers to use the software for any purpose, to distribute it and to modify it. “We are democratising our experience and turning it into software,” says Paredes.
Interested in learning more about the future of finance? Join us at WIRED Money in Studio Spaces, London on May 18, 2017. For more details and to purchase your ticket visit wiredevent.co.uk
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
