The board of Blockchain Australia has appointed Laura Mercurio as the next CEO of Blockchain Australia, effective Monday 12th of September 2022.

Laura Mercurio succeeds Steve Vallas, who led Blockchain Australia for two years. She will guide the organisation in its ongoing mission to be the leading voice for digital assets and the blockchain industry in Australia.

Read more here.

The finalists and winners of the 7th Annual FinTech Awards 2022 were announced last night on 25 August 2022. Winners included The RegTech Association members Tic:Toc who won Best Home Loan Innovation and AssuranceLab who won Best Innovation in RegTech and Female Fintech Leader of the Year.

Read more here.

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, Cambridge Judge Business School has just released their report titled "The Global COVID-19 Fintech Market Impact and Industry Resilience Study."

The study, jointly carried out with The World Bank and the World Economic Forum, was made possible by the support of the Ministry of Finance, Luxembourg and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The key findings include:

- Firms in Advanced Economies (AEs) still dominate in terms of transaction volume, exceeding those in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs)

- Growth rates for the digital payments vertical (the largest sector in global transaction volume) are higher in EMDEs than AEs

- Fintech firms operating in jurisdictions with more stringent COVID-19 related lockdown measures grew faster than those in less stringent lockdown

- A large proportion of responding firms' clients are new customers and from groups that have faced challenges in accessing financial services via traditional intermediaries - pointing to potential contribution that fintech firms are able to make to financial inclusion

- Responding firms perceive the sector to be relatively resilient with firms reporting increases in revenue and turnover across all verticals

Fintech Australia and The RegTech Association are eager to work with the new Labour government.

“We’d like to see the incoming Government support RegTech to an even greater degree. Expanding its thinking around applications for RegTech across an even wider range of regulated verticals. We enjoyed an open dialogue and open-door policy with the former Government and would want this to continue, expand and increase,” Ms Young said.

Read more here.

Congratulations to Clear Dynamics who have recently completed their $35 million Series B funding round, led by existing investors Colinton Capital Partners and OIF Ventures.

Clear Dynamics uses AI to automate the software development process, which allows organisations to quickly create software solutions.

Read more here.

Arctic Intelligence is currently conducting their annual AML Insights survey. Taking part in the survey will give you full access to the paid version of their AML Benchmark Report.

Some insights from the 2021 AML Benchmark Report include:

- 53% of companies perform an enterprise risk assessment once a year, with 25% conducting them as often as business changed.

- 21% of respondents were unsure of how long an enterprise risk assessment actually took, because it was either an external process or a fragmented internal one.

- 69% of respondents claimed that digitisation had provided at least two significant improvements for their risk assessment process. These include more effectiveness in understanding AML risks and demonstrating compliance, as well as having more confidence in their risk assessment process with a centralised documentation repository.

The RegTech Association CEO Deborah Young joins the recently expanded Global Council for the Alliance for Innovative Regulation (AIR).

This will serve as a great opportunity to continue the global discussion of #RegTech and will serve as a vital platform for contributions, conversations and outcomes.

Read more here.

Congratulations to RegTech Association member FrankieOne, for winning this year's #AccelerateR Award 2022.

Each year, The RegTech Association awards a Founder-Led RegTech firm with best pitch by awarding our #AccelerateR award. In 2021 we saw the momentum building around Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) impacts for companies and institutions across multiple sectors and the growing level of importance of ESG to investors. This year's PitchFest focus is based on this momentum with applicants asked to show how their solutions aligned with ESG and how it demonstrates deep connection and potential impact to ESG goals and objectives.

FrankieOne were the judges choice due to being the best at articulating the problem they solve, the solution and market appetite, the business model and scalability, relevance to ESG and most of all, the best pitch delivery on the day. 

Rather than awarding a trophy, the Association has made a donation to the First Nation’s Foundation – an Australian Indigenous Financial Literacy Foundation – thus supporting greater financial inclusion.

Read this interview with Jesse Arundell from CBA and Deborah Young from The RegTech Association on the RegTech imperative

https://www.commbank.com.au/articles/business/foresight/regtech-transforming-compliance.html

Innovation Aus introduces the appointments of The RegTech Association's new Chair Jasper Poos and new Deputy Chair Leica Ison. Read more