Insights from Elevandi's "Bolstering the Financial Sector's Resilience to Environmental Risks" roundtable.
Late last year, our CEO, Deborah Young, had the opportunity to join an Elevandi roundtable as a speaker with Karmela Holtgreve, Dr. Patrick Hoffmann, Kenneth Gay, Anton Ruddenklau, Colin Chen, Harry Lee, Jason Tu, Parula Jalota, and Stefan Flueckiger. Alongside RTA members, Kimmo Soramakilov, Joy Wann, and Chris Southgate (Also acknowledging Evelyn Moore of Green2View who helped Deborah prepare).
You might find this report a useful read. Cross industry, and active collaboration between private and public sectors is a must as Deborah underlined on the day.
For RegTechs, this may mean thinking about what your solution brings to the table and how does this enable the surfacing of environmental risks for your clients.
Watch for this topic at our #ACCELERATE RegTech Global APAC conference coming soon.
Download the full report HERE.
In the past year, 54% of RegTechs experienced increased demand from their customers, and 11% have seen new opportunities emerge. Despite a challenging economic environment, the RegTech industry continues to show positive revenue growth, with some RegTechs achieving over 30% growth. Banks and other buyers attribute the growing demand of RegTech to customer expectations, which is good news for vendors. This also aligns with regulator priorities, where customer protection and systemic stability are top-of-mind. Furthermore, we have seen a surge in regulators onboarding technology, emphasising the need for institutions and RegTechs to step up to the plate. Read more in our 2023 RegTech Industry Perspectives Report — the only comprehensive, contemporary global report of its kind. For industry by industry. If you'd like a briefing on this report, please reach out. members@regtechglobal.org If you'd like to be part of the RTA story, reach out to Nathan Walker, our Community Manager.
The Future of Global Fintech: Towards Resilient and Inclusive Growth, a joint report between the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, Cambridge Judge Business School and the World Economic Forum was officially launched at a press conference in Davos, during the 2024 Annual Meeting.
This report was based on an empirical survey of 227 fintechs from across the world and was supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
To download a copy of the report visit: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/centres/alternative-finance/publications/the-future-of-global-fintech-towards-resilient-and-inclusive-growth/
1. The global fintech industry is demonstrating strength and resilience
As fintechs emerge from COVID-19, their performance remains strong, with customer growth rates averaging above 50% across industry verticals and global regions. From the survey data, it is evident that consumer demand is the main driver of growth, with over half (51%) of all surveyed fintechs citing it as a major factor supporting their growth. This trend is consistent across all regions.
2. Primary fintech growth challenges: macroeconomic factors and funding environment
as the primary challenges for fintech growth. These views come at a time when global inflation and interest rates are high. This sentiment is reflected across regions, where surveyed fintechs cite macroeconomic factors (56%) and the funding environment (40%) as two of the top three hindering factors for growth.
3. Fintechs reflect favourably about their regulatory environment
The majority of fintechs reflect favourably about their regulatory environment, with 63% rating it as adequate. A total of 38% of surveyed fintechs also cite the regulatory environment as a major supporting factor for their operations and growth. However, a substantial portion find regulatory compliance challenging and the licensing and registration processes to be problematic.
4. Differing opinions on fundraising environment’s impact on fintech growth
Despite the significant drop in funding over the past years, the surveyed fintechs have differentiated views about the impact of the fundraising environment on their ability to grow. While the report finds more fintechs cite the current fundraising environment as a hindrance to growth, 34% regard their fundraising environment as supporting growth.
5. Fintechs are expanding services and products to underserved segments
Fintechs are expanding the provision of financial services and products to underserved segments, and these segments also make up a sizeable proportion of their consumer base and total transaction values. While most surveyed fintechs that are targeting underserved customer groups and offering tailored products are in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), fintechs in both advanced economies (AEs) and EMDEs are found to have a sizeable portion of their customer base from these groups.
6. AI and open banking among issues most relevant for future industry development
Looking ahead, artificial intelligence (AI), the digital economy, embedded finance as well as open banking are the issues regarded by fintechs as the most relevant for industry development in the near future. AI was the leader, with 70% of fintechs citing it as the most relevant topic for the development of the fintech industry in the next 5 years.
London, New York, Amsterdam and Singapore - January 16th 2024: Encompass Corporation, the global provider of real-time digital Know Your Customer (KYC) profiles, has acquired CoorpID and Blacksmith KYC from ING to develop a market-leading platform that solves the critical challenge of identification and verification of corporate and institutional clients.
Transform KYC outreach with CoorpID
In 2018, CoorpID was founded by ING Labs in response to complex KYC challenges ING and the wider market faced. CoorpID allows global banks to automate outreach and gather private KYC data directly from corporate banking customers, providing a repository that allows the corporate to manage all their banking relationships. For large multinationals, the platform makes it easy to store and structure KYC company documents and enables sharing with banks and business partners. CoorpID today services over 500 multinationals across Europe, helping them to collate, manage and share relevant corporate data.
CoorpID enables Encompass to build a complete KYC profile, combining authoritative public information with private information directly from customers. This, for the first time, presents financial institutions with a full Corporate Digital Identity (CDI) - providing a unified source of truth and unrivalled visibility into risk.
It, crucially, enhances Encompass’ efforts to solve the key issue of customer outreach for financial institutions. Through this complete customer profile, the need for unnecessary outreach is eliminated. The result is a faster, slicker experience without compromising on robust compliance.
This is complemented by another acquisition from ING, which sees Blacksmith KYC also join Encompass.
Customise KYC processes with Blacksmith KYC
Blacksmith was established in 2017, as part of ING Labs Singapore, with the aim to enhance KYC processes for the financial industry. Blacksmith allows banks like ING to configure their Customer Due Diligence (CDD) requirements within a Digital Policy Manager. This ensures that the relevant data and evidence is gathered and streamlines the collection process. Blacksmith has demonstrated up to 50% efficiency savings and is broadly used across the entire ING Financial Institutions client base, in addition to supporting wider external customers.
Connecting this unique capability will significantly enhance Encompass’ offering, making it much easier for banks to turn their manual KYC policies into efficient automated processes to provide analysts with valuable risk insights from the customer profiles and to better monitor Financial Economic Crime (FEC) risk exposure.
One Corporate Digital Identity platform globally
The deal will see Encompass acquire 100% of CoorpID and Blacksmith, creating a platform that will transform the KYC process across the industry. ING will be a stakeholder and development partner to Encompass.
The acquisitions mark a major milestone for Encompass, accelerating the company’s vision to be the number one CDI platform globally, and achieving a core part of its mission since inception in 2011. CDI, which is emerging as a critical sector in the KYC ecosystem, will complement Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) technology to enhance the overall customer journey.
ING sees Encompass as a strategic partner and has committed to using the platform in the years ahead.
Wayne Johnson, co-founder and CEO, Encompass Corporation, said:
“Today is a momentous occasion for our business, and one I could not be prouder to see.
“ING’s commitment to supporting and fuelling KYC excellence has led to the successful journeys of CoorpID and Blacksmith KYC. The combination of the
technology and market expertise brought by these two businesses is the perfect match for Encompass.
“CDI is the future of our industry, solving critical problems for the banks we serve, and these acquisitions represent a huge step forward in bringing our vision, which will transform KYC, to life. I could not be more excited as we embark on this next phase and fully believe in what we collectively bring, with much more on the horizon.”
Ivar Lammers, Global Head of Financial Crime Wholesale Banking at ING, said: "I am very proud of the sale of our KYC innovations that have reached the time for the next chapter of their journeys.
“Encompass, CoorpID and Blacksmith have been established with the customer at heart, which connects them and has been their recipe for success. Together they will continue to provide a first-class customer experience, with smart, tailored offerings that address the needs and challenges of our clients and industry, now and in the future.
AIR has kicked off a series of exciting initiatives to explore the potential impact of GenAI on financial regulation and the end users of financial services — NextGenAI: The Future of Financial Oversight and Protection.
Learn more HERE.
The NextGenAI series includes research, collaborative stakeholder discussions, a tech showcase for regulators and solution providers, a call for papers to foster thought leadership, and virtual shared learning events designed to facilitate dialogue and debate on key issues.
The Tech Showcase has been launched with the solution submission period currently open. Featured demonstrations, with Q&A between providers and regulators, are scheduled to begin in March 2024.
For technology providers, this is a chance to better understand regulator needs and showcase their capabilities and vision. We are looking for generative AI-enabled solution that could address some of the challenges that financial authorities face, such as:
Data Analysis and Monitoring
Members are invited to submit your solution for the tech showcase HERE.
The RegTech Association has been tracking the time-to-value metric for the last 5 years. Since 2019, the sales cycle has reduced, on average, from 13 months to 8.1 months, showing a promising sign that the eco-system is maturing and RegTech is becoming more critical and BAU. We are seeing RegTech creep up as a key item in the C-Suite and a strong appetite by regulators going forward.
But why is this time-to-value and shorter sales cycle so critical and what are our top reasons that this is an indicator of health and progress?
A shorter sales cycle means everyone wins by getting the productivity, efficiency and trust and safety baked in. This includes customers, consumers, institutions, regulators and RegTechs' themselves.
We are inviting members to reach out for free presentations on this research, please contact us to arrange.
Alternatively, register for our upcoming #RegTechMatters webinar, where we will be discussing the findings in more detail.
Read the full report here.
29 November 2023, Sydney, Australia – LAB Group, a leading international RegTech and Australia’s best-connected onboarding provider, is pleased to welcome SuperGuardian Pty Ltd to the LAB Network.
One of Australia’s largest Self-Managed Super Fund (SMSF) Administrators, SuperGuardian ensures Australian Trustees and Financial Advisers have ready access to the facts, tools and support they need to make informed decisions and to maximise wealth creation. An independently owned, private Chartered Accounting firm and registered tax agent established in 2002, SuperGuardian provides SMSF Trustees and their Financial Adviser with up-to-date reporting, compliance and tax services.
Until now, establishing an SMSF has meant dealing with a number of different service providers and government departments, which can be complex and time consuming. This collaboration will make establishing an SMSF much simpler for advisers and more secure for their clients, who may be looking to join the growing number of Australians taking control of their superannuation in an SMSF.
This deal marks LAB Group’s entry into the new vertical of SMSF Administrators and represents its first step towards grasping broader opportunities in this attractive market. LAB Group has identified potential to leverage its existing capabilities in this space, as SMSF Administration firms have similar regulatory obligations to those which LAB Group already solves for its existing clients regarding Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF).
In welcoming SuperGuardian to the LAB Platform, LAB Group is providing its Onboarding Framework which delivers a streamlined digital engagement journey for clients wishing to establish a new SMSF or transfer the administration of an existing SMSF to SuperGuardian. With access to LAB’s Application Manager, advisers and intermediaries have also gained the ability to originate applications into SuperGuardian on behalf of their clients. Longer term, SuperGuardian and LAB Group plan to engage more closely to collaborate on further automation to onboarding processes through new integrations and features.
Beyond the LAB Platform, SuperGuardian is also utilising LAB Verify to automate a variety of identity and entity verification requirements, and is leveraging LAB extensive connectivity to facilitate the opening of new Macquarie Cash Management Accounts.
This partnership bolsters the value of the LAB Network to LAB Group’s existing customers, providing the potential for connectivity from upstream participants into SMSF Administration services. It also expands the number of intermediaries, advisers and end clients utilising LAB Group technology to sign up to financial services products, further enhancing the reach of the LAB Network.
Following a rapid deployment of 2 weeks, the solution is now live and already adding significant value across the partnership.
Nick Boudrie, CEO and co-founder of LAB Group, said:
“We’re delighted to be servicing SuperGuardian and its adviser and client network. SuperGuardian is a long-standing, well-connected key player in Australia’s SMSF Administration industry, and one that recognises the unique benefits of LAB Group’s offering, particularly our extensive experience and network capabilities. We look forward to helping to accelerate and improve SuperGuardian’s customer journey and experience.”
SuperGuardian Chief Operating Officer, Josh Williams, said:
“We are pleased to partner with LAB Group, to provide our clients with a straightforward and easy-to-navigate sign-up process. The new process streamlines and automates a number of manual steps, including digital identity verification for both direct and adviser-led prospects. It has also enabled integration with Macquarie Bank for account establishment and we look forward to further expanding connectivity with other financial services businesses across the LAB Network, for the benefit of our clients.”
For all media enquiries, please contact:
Tim Dohrmann, NWR Communications
Phone: +61 468 420 846
Email: tim@nwrcommunications.com.au
About LAB Group Services Pty Ltd
Where welcome onboard begins.
LAB is a RegTech providing an innovative KYC & Onboarding platform that revolutionises the customer journey from the very first steps, fulfilling AML/CTF regulatory needs whilst saving time and resources by providing a high degree of automation for account creation and customer lifecycle management using remediation and ongoing customer due diligence processes.
The LAB platform welcomes tens of thousands of people into hundreds of financial product offerings across over 15 industry verticals, matching applicants with a vast array of market offerings.
Connect to more people in more places.
Connect into the LAB Network that leverages strategic partnerships and integrations to enhance product origination and distribution.
Hundreds of regulated entities around the globe connect through the LAB Network to accelerate customer registration, reduce onboarding time, increase security, and achieve higher completion rates.
The leaders in secure onboarding.
LAB’s continually advancing platform empowers our businesses to stay ahead of rapidly changing compliance regulations and evolving customer experience expectations.
Our Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform provides a fully compliant, end-to-end, multi product digital onboarding process. LAB seamlessly connects digital client acquisition, ID verification, biometrics, workflow management, fraud protection and compliance services on a single platform.
Become part of the most connected digital onboarding platform.
With LAB’s unmatched connectivity, we get you to market sooner through our sector-agnostic integrations and transformational data automation.
[Cambridge, United Kingdom, November 9, 2023] – In the ever-changing world of financial services, regulatory compliance stands as a critical priority. Failing to meet regulatory obligations poses a host of challenges that can impact operational, financial, and reputational risks.
Financial entities often encounter significant challenges due to the escalating complexity of regulatory requirements. As early as 2020, the Financial Stability Board noted that “The increased complexity and volume of regulations, and the significant consequences of non-compliance, have led to large increases in spending on compliance and risk management programmes by regulated institutions”.
Those operating in multiple jurisdictions need comprehensive support to ensure their adherence to relevant regulations across diverse regulatory frameworks. In its analysis of the dynamics of the RegTech sector, the European Banking Authority noted that “[…] where FIs do business in several jurisdictions, the lack of common regulation and divergent regulatory requirements fragment the RegTech market and may require FIs to adopt multiple solutions from different vendors, which increases operational risk and reduces the attractiveness for RegTech solution”. This need to stay up-to-date drives up compliance costs, pushing financial providers to explore more cost-effective, sustainable solutions.
Additionally, keeping pace with the rapidly evolving landscape of emerging digital technologies, such as cryptocurrencies and decentralised financial transactions, is further complicating compliance. Consequently, financial services firms are enhancing in-house compliance support and seeking external legal counsel to navigate this dynamic landscape.
“The regulatory landscape is evolving rapidly and becoming more complex to manage. Organisations are responding by adopting machine-based processes to help manage risk, which is driving demand for machine-readable and consumable forms of regulatory information. At RegGenome, we are committed to leading the way in transforming how regulatory information is produced and consumed, working with both regulated firms and regulatory authorities to create composable regulatory information that can enable efficient compliance and risk management in the next generation of financial market infrastructure.”
Robert Wardrop, Chief Executive Officer
RegGenome’s Content Retrieval Service is powered by machine readable Reg-Genome data, providing a single source of regulatory content. Data at the heart of the Retrieval Service is the result of RegGenome’s deep understanding of the regulatory landscape. The retrieval service empowers regulatory experts to streamline and expedite their regulatory analysis, compliance, and risk assessment, by providing only the documents and data that are relevant to their needs.
As a data-only provider, RegGenome delivers data designed to power applications and services for partners and end-user organisations. It serves legislatures, standard setters, regulators, regulated firms, and providers of regulatory services and solutions. This data enables regulatory research and supports change management, impact assessment, regulatory comparison, regulatory insights, and the automation of regulatory activities.
Firms can save both time and human resources by receiving content specific to their use cases, giving them increased predictability in their projects, and allowing the focus to remain solely on their compliance efforts, rather than the sourcing and understanding of regulatory content.
“We understand that getting relevant regulatory information to the people who need it in a timely manner is important. Regulatory experts seem to spend their valuable time filtering out regulation that is simply not relevant. With our data we want to put only relevant regulations into the hands of regulatory experts, to enable them to spend more time on more valuable work. Filtering out non relevant regulation wastes time and resources, our data removes this waste”.
Mark Johnston, Chief Operating Officer
For more information about RegGenome and its Content Retrieval Service, please visit www.reg-genome.com
About RegGenome:
RegGenome, a regulatory data provider, is a University of Cambridge spin-out, transforming how the world produces and consumes regulation. Processing the world’s regulation using AI to transform it into machine-readable and machine consumable data. RegGenome provides regulatory infrastructure and data as a service. Our data is processed according to information structures (Cambridge Regulatory Genome taxonomies) developed & reviewed with regulatory experts and anchored to regulatory standards in conjunction with the University of Cambridge, Regulatory Genome Project.
Introducing Tiimely - it's about tiime
Adelaide, 14 November 2023 - Platform technology company, Tic:Toc, today unveiled its rebrand to Tiimely, in a move designed to better reflect how the company’s AI-driven technology solutions can be integrated into any financial assessment processes.
Tiimely, spelt with a double ii, elevates the company’s Enterprise business as Tiimely’s core proposition and demonstrates to the finance and technology industries ‘it’s about tiime’ for more efficient, responsible and seamless lending processes.
Since launching in 2017 as the World’s First Instant Home Loan®, the business has evolved significantly from a digital lender to a platform technology company, with the Enterprise business accounting for more than 40% of revenue in FY23 and enabling 3% of Australia’s total home loan market. The platform is now licensed by two of Australia’s biggest banks, as well as two ASX Top 100 listed companies, fintechs, and brokers.
Tiimely’s Founder and CEO, Anthony Baum, says, “Since day one, we’ve been on a mission to accelerate the financial services industry. We started with changing the way Australians complete a complex financial transaction - a home loan - and after six years, we remain committed to the pursuit of seamless experiences. Our partners choose us because our platform technology solutions create better customer experiences, drive efficiency, remove costs and accommodate scale, whilst delivering more responsible credit outcomes. That won’t change no matter what our name is.
“Of course, Tiimely also responds to confusing associations from sharing the name Tic:Toc with a certain social media app. While our trademark proves we came first, the rebrand provides the room to focus on our platform business model without mis-categorisation or distraction.”
The Tiimely platform, Xapii, pronounced “zappy” provides API-first solutions powered by Explainable AI (XAI). Tiimely now has four key solutions, Convert, Decide, Fulfil and Inform, which can be utilised across multiple use cases including mortgages, auto finance and hardship.
AI-driven data enrichment and decisioning can be interacted with via Xapii’s user interface to enable acceptance or edits to the platform’s recommendations, which it then continuously learns from. This enables an 80% increase in assessment efficiency compared to traditional processes, producing more than 5 million automated assessments in the last year while maintaining rigorous compliance standards that can be configured into the platform and are fully auditable.
Xapii can be accessed as either API-first software solutions to solve for discrete problems across a financial journey or as an end-to-end platform (PaaS) including professional services. In return, Enterprise clients can access new markets with automation enabling an improved cost to income, while borrowers can access low-cost products via seamless digital experiences.
Following the close of its Series-D2 capital raise in February 2023, the company is now valued at ~$254m.
About Tiimely, formerly Tic:Toc
Tiimely is a technology company specialising in making financial assessment processes more efficient, cost-effective and responsible. Tiimely’s business is underpinned by its proprietary AI-driven platform, Xapii, powered by sophisticated data models to enable configurable data enrichment and automation.
The platform can be licensed as an end-to-end digital home loan or via discrete software and API solutions that can be utilised across any financial services journey. The platform now touches 3% of the Australian mortgage market and is licensed by two of Australia's biggest banks, ASX Top 100 listed companies, fintechs, and brokers as well as its own in-house retail business Tiimely Home.
Media queries
The PR Group: TicToc@prgroup.com.au l +61 457 596 920
In the latest episode of our FinTalk by VERMEG podcast, Deborah Young, CEO of the The RegTech Association, joins our host, Jawad Akhtar, to delve into the importance of trust and collaboration in the RegTech industry.
In this engaging conversation, key points of discussion include:
Listen Online HERE
Join in this insightful conversation with Deborah Young about the role of trust, collaboration, and innovation in shaping the future of RegTech. Share and contribute your thoughts to this crucial dialogue.
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