Brief guide to Regulatory Technologies (Regtech)

Regulatory Compliance in today’s corporate world has become most significant in recent times. Regulatory Compliance means to check whether an organization complies with the regulations applicable to it. Now-a-days scope of Regulatory Compliance is rising due to increase in the number of frauds and non-compliances violations. Riskpro which leads the regulatory technology movement in India has designed multiple tools to assist number of constituents. Financial Institutions are bearing huge monetary losses due to growing demand for compliant transactions. Recently Credit Suisse paid $30 Million to settle FCPA offenses. Companies are bearing huge costs for compliance procedures. So in recent times new concept of Regtech (Regulatory Technology) has come into limelight.

What is Regtech ?

Regtech means to develop a product which uses Information Technology and helps financial institutions to enhance their regulatory processes. Regtech is now an emerging field because of many benefits like

• Low cost compliance process
• Combating Money Laundering
• Avoidance of non-compliance cost like huge fines
• Efficient compliance management
• Improvement in Corporate Governance
• Transparency in Transactions
• Improving the data quality

Besides these Regtech solutions are agile, fast and speedy and help to create a simple solution for complex data. It is a technology that allows firms to easily adapt to the pressure of increasing regulatory requirements while being cost-effective and secure. This technology will allow companies to automate the process of monitoring data and ease the reporting process to regulatory bodies.

Regtech for Banking

In India Regtech solutions can be widely useful to almost all sectors as the requirement of compliance is universal. But the most beneficial sector is the Banking Sector. For the Banking Sector the most challenging part of regulatory compliance is KYC compliance and Risk mitigation. KYC/AML compliance is for Account holders whereas Risk mitigation is for borrowers. In both these areas Regtech can provide best solutions to banks. Regtech can provide real time monitoring of activities and background verification checks. Banks with the help of Regtech can identify heightened risk entities.

Apart from financial institutions, Regtech solutions can be very useful because of the increased actions of the Regulators like Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and enforcement actions by Enforcement Directorate. Due to increase in non-compliance activities, there is an increase in money laundering and related frauds in financial institutions, stock market etc.

To prevent rising rate of frauds and money laundering activities, regulators in India must think of adopting Regtech solutions which can really provide accurate models.

Regtech for Mergers & Acquisitions

Large Acquisitions and mergers are taking place in India now-a-days. In 2017 Vodafone-Idea merger took place and it was one of the biggest mergers in recent times. It is important for investment companies to conduct due diligence process of the company in which it is investing. Besides due diligence, Regulatory compliance is also an important factor for both acquirer and the acquiree company. Regtech can come to the rescue of such Companies. Regtech solutions can provide regulatory risk analysis tools which can save a lot of time in due diligence process. This also reduces cost incurred in such process.

Technology Adoption in Regtech

Regtech solutions are developed by various technologies like Machine Learning, Big Data Analytics/Data Mining, Cloud Computing and Artificial Intelligence. Inputs for these solutions are mostly big data sets.

1. Machine Learning- It is an ability of Computer Systems to recognize complex patterns, to build relationships using large unstructured datasets. Machine Learning can be a useful tool for risk management. It can be used to identify risk factors in data. Self-learning and risk models can be fed with large datasets and can be used to diagnose market risk factors accurately. Prediction analysis tool can be built by use of Machine Learning, in which the tool will predict the risk factors in the data.
2. Data Analytics/Data Mining- This method is generally used to create a structured format for big unstructured data. Nowadays structuring the collection of complex and large number of data has become challenging for financial firms. Hence Data Mining is widely adopted. It is now being used to identify suspicious activity holistically and on real time basis which helps combating financial crime. It is also used to analyze large datasets of client activities to detect unusual patterns.
3. Cloud Computing- It is a delivery of computing services such as servers, storage, databases, networking etc. over the internet(‘Cloud’). Cloud Computing helps financial firms to be more flexible and adaptive to changes in regulatory requirements. Through cloud based services, standardized utilities are established. These utilities perform various functions such as risk mitigation, compliance and reporting function including Know Your Costumer (KYC). Such utilities are managed by third parties and Financial Institutions are given access to these utilities. Such applications are updated quickly i.e. when a new regulation is introduced or when existing regulation is amended, if related to such utility then it is updated immediately.
4. Artificial Intelligence- It is an area where intelligent machines are created. AI in Regtech is still a topic of discussion but this particular program can be used in various ways. Artificial Intelligence can be used in risk assessment, prevention of money laundering, to mitigate and solve risk and compliance issues. AI is actually very vast field and is still under development. Many software Companies are chasing AI and so are Regtech companies.

By using and adopting above technologies following tools can be created in compliance field by Regtech companies.

1. Regulation Gap Analysis Tools
2. Compliance Universe Tools
3. Transaction Reporting Tools
4. Regulatory Reporting Tools
5. Activity Monitoring Tools
6. Transaction Monitoring Tools

Riskpro Technology which is one of the leading Regtech company in India helps in building these tools for the Financial Institutions. Please check our PEP API documentation here

Originally published at riskpro.co.in.