RegTech Intelligence 
2016 has added tens of thousands of new regulatory pages to the pile, which has kept us, at JWG, very busy boys and girls.
Unlike the last decade, however this year has been about unexpected twists and turns in the road: It’s been a year of MiFID II/R panic, implementation delays, regulators waking up to RegTech, Brexit/Trump/Renzi uncertainty and cyber security. We’ve done our best to keep our clients up to speed with the latest expectations but, at times, we have to sigh and just say ‘well, we’ll see what happens next year, then!’
We started the year with a complete rebrand and redesign of our RegTech platform, that now allows the reader to filter our analysis in a more structured way and makes our content more accessible. This has proven to be immensely successful, as echoed in our readership and levels of engagement. We will continue to enhance the site in 2017, in order to create a more intuitive and dynamic reader experience.
As regular readers of these pages know, there has been no shortage of crucial updates, shocking decisions and emerging priorities that have inspired our articles throughout the year. Key themes have included the expanding MiFID II/R requirements, with particular scrutiny on the myriad of transaction reporting requirements, which we covered in over 50 of our articles from the year. For more on our most popular articles of 2016, please see the table below.
RegTech itself was another key focus for us at JWG and the content of our articles. Over the course of the year, we’ve been involved in a number of exciting events connected to the FCA’s Project Innovate, which we’ve written extensively about. We were asked to host an FCA-facilitated industry roundtable on the topic in March and we also participated in the November TechSprint event, while in July, we hosted our own RegTech Capital Markets Conference, which was attended by over 170 delegates. This dialogue surrounding RegTech innovation has been gaining traction with regulators across the globe and we will strive to keep our readers up-to-date with the latest developments through our analysis on the site. Thanks to our success in July, we now have even more delegates signed up to a second RegTech Conference on 28 February 2017 – to reserve your seat, please click here.
Of course, no roundup of the year would be complete without mentioning the seismic impact of Brexit. In May, prior to the vote, we published a White Paper on the potential impact of Brexit on the financial services sector and, on 24 June, the decision was final with a 52% majority in favour of leaving. This decision, coupled with the American election and the Italian referendum result means that we’re facing an uncertain 2017, that promises to present even more twists and turns. However, you can be certain that we will track each development and create independent analytical commentary on the consequences of financial regulation.
Despite the confusion across the regulatory spectrum, we put this year to bed with a smile as, 2016 has resulted in RegTechFS witnessing its greatest year to date. Thank you to our followers who have caused our page views to surge a staggering 85% percent from 2015 levels.
Looking ahead to 2017, we will continue to bring you JWG’s analysis, spanning the breadth of global regulatory reform in order to help our readers make sense of the evolving landscape of financial regulation. The first order of business will be sorting through hundreds of pages of regulatory guidance released in the ‘Christmas dump and run’ period.
Until then, we just want to wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
| Title | Summary | |
| 1 | 10 key issues for the MiFID II guidelines for transaction reporting | On 23 December 2015, ESMA published a consultation paper for guidelines on transaction reporting, reference data, order record keeping and clock synchronisation. With approximately 70% of the 270-page consultation paper focusing on transaction reporting, this article discusses some of the key implementing issues arising from these proposed guidelines. |
| 2 | The RegTech marketplace: in depth analysis (Part 1 of 3) | The first in a three-part series, this article assesses an EY report released in conjunction with the UK Treasury, which declared the UK to be the highest ranking FinTech sector in the world with a market size of £6.6 billion. This article looks at the ‘tech’ side of the RegTech equation by focusing on big data analytics, artificial intelligence, cloud computing/open data, distributed ledgers and semantic models. |
| 3 | Commission publishes first set of final Delegated Acts for MiFID II | On 7 April 2016, the European Commission published part of the long awaited Delegated Acts for MiFID II. This was an unexpected move as not many were expecting to see them in separate parts. This first set of Delegated Acts for MiFID II has been based on advice from ESMA and covers three topics, assessed in this article; safeguarding of client financial instruments and funds, product governance requirements and inducements. |
| 4 | 6 key areas of overlap between PRIIPs and MiFID II – part 1 | In this first article, three key areas of regulatory overlap are assessed between the PRIIPs regulation and MiFID II/R and an overall verdict on the level of commonality is determined. In particular; scope, disclosure on financial instruments and target market of both legislative initiatives are analysed in conjunction. |
| 5 | Did ESMA address the industry’s key issues in their MiFID II guidelines for transaction reporting? | In December 2015, ESMA published a consultation paper on transaction reporting, order record keeping and clock synchronisation. In this article, we consider the issues raised in the responses to the CP, as ESMA published its guidelines. |
| 6 | The RegTech ecosystem: in depth analysis (part 3 of 3) | In the third and final part of this article series, we look at the emerging ‘RegTech ecosystem’ and how the regulators’ role is crucial in promoting continued development. |
| 7 | JWG FCA RegTech Roundtable – key takeaways | In November 2015, the FCA issued a call for input on RegTech. JWG argued that new and proven tools can be employed but, to do so, the debate must be reframed as a ‘RegTech commons’ for the market to take off. We assembled top technologists from 14 leading firms with the FCA under Chatham house rule on 11 March 2016 to frame the thinking about the what it will take to successfully lay the foundations and build the domains as summarised in this article. |
| 8 | MiFID II transaction reporting – latest issues and current industry timeline | As time ticks on in the implementation delay for MiFID II, regulators and firms are moving closer towards mutual understanding and delivery. There are still many creases to be ironed out in the run up to January 2018, especially with regards to transaction reporting, which is a major pain point for many firms. This article provides a brief overview of the key major issues and the current timeline surrounding MiFID II transaction reporting. |
| 9 | The RegTech barriers: in depth analysis (part 2 of 3) | In the second instalment of this article series on RegTech, the focus is on the barriers to good RegTech, with particular analysis into motive, mandate, complexity and timing. |
| 10 | Solvency II: rethinking infrastructure investments | On 1 April 2016, the European Commission’s Delegated Regulation relating to Solvency II – the European risk-based capital regime – was published in the Official Journal of the EU. This covers the new risk charges imposed on insurers’ equity and debt investment in infrastructure projects. |