The UK Financial Services Regulatory Initiatives Forum released its second major Regulatory Initiatives Grid update of the year and the 7th edition of the Grid overall. Over three dozen new initiatives have been added to last year’s plan (JWG Grid 6 analysis here) taking into account the summer update which flagged the significance of Financial
The UK’s Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS), which will test a new approach to rulemaking for digital securities trading and settlement infrastructure, should launch at the end of the first quarter 2024. “This is not our traditional Innovate sandbox. It is being specifically set up to allow infrastructure to test a new rule set that would
JWG’s eighth annual conference will be the premier, global event for setting the 2024 RegTech agenda on 7 February in London. Join us to help shape the debate today. Register for 7 February 2024 About the JWG RegTech agenda Long recognised as the first, biggest and most professional public/private sector agenda debate, JWG is continuing
New, exacting BCBS 239 data quality expectations are coming into force just as EMIR Refit and JFSA derivative reporting is put into production 200 days from now. Businesses will be under pressure to deliver lineage for their data or risk fines and reputational damage. JWG’s DRR RegDelta is a RegTech solution that helps companies maintain
US Regulators fired a $555m shot across Wall Street’s bow last week by holding them accountable for their employees’ pervasive use of unauthorized communication methods, like private texts and in some cases WhatsApp. This is the second batch of ‘market moving’ fines in the US within a year , yet no other country has followed
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has asked firms to provide granular information to identify investment and execution decision makers more accurately in Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) transaction reports. The MiFIR reporting regime went live in 2018. The FCA uses MiFIR transaction reports, in part, to conduct market surveillance for market abuse and insider
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) opened “around 600” supervisory cases looking at financial crime between April 2022 and March 2023. That represents a threefold increase in its overall proactive work from the previous year and covers roughly 1% of the authorised population (21,500) subject to Money Laundering Regulations (MLR 2017), a FCA spokesperson said. “It
On June 20, 2023, PJ Di Giammarino, CEO and founder of JWG and Matt Caine, Director of EMEA Financial Markets Communication Compliance at NICE held a discussion on ‘Navigating the Winding Regulatory Road of Communication Compliance’ with a group of Financial Services Compliance and IT experts at the NICE Interactions 2023 conference in London. During
The next five years are shaping up to be the most strategic period of regulatory engagement on industry data since the financial crisis. ESMA’s new 5 year data strategy illuminates a well thought through path to achieving real transparency though technology-enabled data hubs that cover the full scope of current and new capital markets activity.
The recent allegations made against Coinbase and Binance by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have cast a spotlight on the compliance challenges faced by the cryptocurrency industry. However, it is not just the US that is grappling with regulatory issues pertaining to digital assets – a high degree of correlation has been noted
Firms should re-engineer their anti-money laundering (AML) systems and controls to refocus on know-your-customer (KYC) processes to prevent the inevitable pile-up of transaction monitoring alerts. Firms’ pivot to digital onboarding has prioritised speed over collecting enough information to determine whether transactions are suspicious. It has created an inefficient, expensive process where AML analysts are sifting
In response to mounting global concerns about generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), legislators and stakeholders have been listening hard to technologists while finalizing tough new rules for digital non-financial risk. Will AI be a wake-up call for firms to define ‘what good looks like’ for infrastructure standards before massive fines start to land? To avoid a
Consumer trading in unbacked crypto-assets is akin to gambling and should be regulated as such, a committee of influential UK lawmakers said today. Technology underpinning crypto may have some benefits for financial services, but those are unclear, the Treasury Committee’s crypto-asset report said. Large parts of the crypto-asset industry remain a “wild west”, said Harriett
Over the past three months, regulatory developments in the digital asset space have continued to create choppy waters for industry players and market participants alike. Lawsuits have been filed, new initiatives have been launched, and guidelines are being introduced as governments attempt to keep up with the ever-evolving market. Who would have thought a pop
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will this month publish its Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) trade reporting policy statement for equity trade data. The policy statement will also cover a new designated reporter regime for post-trade transparency, an FCA official told the JWG Trading Compliance RegTech Seminar. Separately, the FCA confirmed in
As the deadlines for compliance with new, complex derivatives rules approach, many firms are at risk of facing hefty fines from regulators if they are found wanting. JWG is calling on all firms to join their next global virtual seminar on 29 June to discuss strategies for deploying proven DRR RegTech to manage their regulatory
Regulators and regulated have come together to improve the current transparency value equation by introducing granular guidance in the form of code. JWG research efforts are pushing forward to explore RegTech reporting opportunities with a global, virtual SupTech and RegTech seminar on 29 June. We are inviting global SMEs to help shape the agenda and
JWG’s 22 March 2023 Trading Compliance Seminar brought together an all-star cast of over 20 experts who discussed plans for the latest MiFID Review, Market Data changes, CTP, MAR, ESG data demands, MiCA and UK digital asset efforts. These experts did an outstanding job in putting regulatory demands into context and provide delegates with valuable
Winning the ESG data Marathon in 2023 With the ever-increasing focus on ESG transparency from regulators and clients, firms are racing to meet the requirements needed to make their mark in the global marketplace. This race requires tens of thousands of market participants to produce data according to different standards. However, with a proper plan
UK Regulators have finally disclosed their plans for 2023 which are 29% bigger than last year with the FCA owning the lion’s share of the 143 initiatives. Practitioners should update their firm’s radars with this version but beware: further updates are expected over the course of 2023. JWG RegRadars are primed and ready. Join us
The UK’s second discussion paper of 2023 on the benefit of modern technology presents a great chance for the industry to engage on the future of TradFI and DeFi RegTech standards. Successful reference models can help shape the path for asset management. However, this is an enormous cultural and technical shift which will require broad
UK crypto-asset regulation should require firms to be authorised locally and establish a physical presence to help asset recovery efforts when customer funds are lost to fraud or theft, lawyers said. HM Treasury’s crypto-asset regulation consultation paper, published this month, says crypto-asset activity provided in or to the UK must be authorised by UK authorities.
With new waves of regulation and enforcement coming fast, navigating cryptocurrency and digital assets rules has keeping middle and back offices hands on the tiller this quarter. JWG’s Crypto asset RegRadars are hot and this article provides three dozen links to contextualise choppiest waters in Q12023 in advance of JWG’s 22 March Trading Compliance seminar.
The UK Treasury’s fired a warning shot across the bow of digital assets businesses yesterday. The proposed regime will be a significant challenge for the current exchanges and digital asset firms who do not have access to institutional-grade RegTech solutions. With so much at stake, it is essential that those affected understand what impact these
The UK Treasury’s consultation on further crypto asset regulation signals a heavy compliance burden for crypto businesses and some vertically integrated firms may be required to restructure to gain authorisation. Crypto businesses operating in the UK must be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and compliant with the Money Laundering Regulation (MLR 2017). Around
Trading desks face unprecedented levels of regulatory change from the mechanics of the markets and how they monitor them, to how they interact with customers, the way they de-risk their technology suppliers and provide information to regulators. This article summarises the critical changes and lays out the context for our 22 March virtual trading seminar.
Many of the financial regulatory reforms announced in Edinburgh on Friday by Jeremy Hunt, Chancellor of the Exchequer, had a familiar ring to them. Banks, investment firms and anyone selling products to or into the UK market will need to engage with the detail of what was published. “The Edinburgh Reforms seize on our Brexit
Digital regulatory reporting (DRR) music has upped tempo in 2022: Internationally, the Financial Stability Board (FSB)has become the new home for reporting requirements and is poised to launch its 2023 workplan In the US, the derivatives sector is enjoying the benefits for CFTC rewrite reporting which start next month before deploying DRR code across the
The aim of this group is to look at the broader frame of supervisory technology (SupTech) with a view to creating a paper covering challenges and 2022 priorities
An all-star cast of 40+ speakers will gather virtually on 9th & 10th November 2022 to set the 2023 RegTech agenda at JWG’s 7th annual premier RegTech conference. Markets have been rocked by turbulence unseen in over a decade and the regulatory agenda has shifted quickly. JWG research has defined 10 panels and worked with the industry to
The regulatory spotlight on stablecoins has intensified this month with the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Crypto-asset paper noting[1] that many existing stablecoins still would not meet their recommendations. International risk management principles will be welcomed, but 2023 will be the year that the industry needs to define a better approach to managing compliance in a
The European Commission has pushed ahead with digital regulatory reporting — which it views as a central workstream in its overall agenda to make financial services fit for the digital age — while UK regulators have sidelined similar initiatives. The Commission is taking a deliberate approach to testing technology and frameworks for delivering machine-readable and executable
Regulators don’t just want firms to read what they put on their websites, they want them to prove their risk and control frameworks do what they say. RegTech now enables firms to interpret their requirements and provide businesses with an opportunity to bring costs down and avoid regulatory actions that can put the business ‘on
Accountability regimes will force board members and senior management on the Continent to rethink compliance for the Senior Executive Accountability Regime (SEAR) in 2024. The new regime will ‘gold plate’ current EU law and present international firms with major new hurdles. Irish bankers will be individually accountable for their responsibilities, with fines and even jail
New policy efforts in by Australian, US, UK, EU and International rule setters will widen the scope of regulatory oversight for financial institutions to include ‘how’ the business runs. As we have seen with US Federal reserve consultation released this week, boards are on the hook for a holistic approach to ensuring their digital infrastructure
Crypto market capitalization has receded by nearly 75% as $2 trillion were wiped off the market[1] leaving many crypto investors to reflect on the words Warren Buffet: “You only learn who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out”. Rulemaking continued to push the digital-asset agenda forward over the summer with over 3,000 pages published
New UK and EU regulations are forcing banks to demand new controls from their suppliers. Not only do they now need a comprehensive view of how each supplier fits in, but they also need to know how to swap them out. Senior managers across the bank should be working to establish plans now for these
Think-tank JWG urges Financial Services firms to collaborate with suppliers to close infrastructure gaps as fines loom London, UK – 13 September, 2022 – JWG, the trusted financial services regulatory intelligence company, has announced the publication of a ground-breaking research paper ‘Managing Digital Infrastructure Risk: a collaborative path to financial services safety’. New regulation will fundamentally
This report is a companion guide to a larger research report, ‘Managing Digital Infrastructure Risk: A collaborative path to financial services safety’ produced by JWG. It is intended to help IT managers understand the implication of new regulatory demands on the IT supply chain.
This report is intended to help senior IT, Risk and Compliance managers to understand new regulatory demands and their implication on investment firms and their suppliers
JWG, the trusted financial services regulatory intelligence company, has announced the publication of a ground-breaking research paper ‘Managing Digital Infrastructure Risk: a collaborative path to financial services safety’. New regulation will fundamentally change the landscape for the biggest tech companies–particularly cloud providers. By 2025, overlapping requirements to mitigate operational resilience threats (UK PS6/21,DORA); control third
Record temperatures are not the only challenge to global infrastructure this summer. New, onerous regulatory infrastructure obligations are warming the landscape for financial institutions and their technology providers. Europe has moved first to establish new operational resilience and cyber rules that will demand new controls from and portability between providers. Europe is moving fast with
The aim of this group is to look at the broader frame of supervisory technology (SupTech) with a view to creating a paper covering challenges and 2022 priorities
The political process by which sanctions are agreed is difficult but the process for implementing them is worse. As a result, sanctions are not nearly as effective a weapon as we would like to think they could be. Ten RegTech building blocks are on the table for discussion – how do we configure a case
The UK Treasury has moved to close a loophole in the Money Laundering Regulations (MLR 2017) that potentially allowed crypto asset firms to bypass the UK’s registration gateway, according to a government document published on June 15. Previously firms could notify the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) after a change of ownership occurred. Now crypto asset
Hack-to-trade schemes and confidential information dealing on the dark web, combined with regulatory warnings about firms’ management of material non-public information (MNPI), are raising further concerns about markets’ ability to keep a lid on insider dealing and other forms of manipulation. The number of cases brought against individuals using stolen data or MNPI to trade,
Criminal networks have eluded Anti Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (AML/TF) nets for decades. Digital assets have forced policy makers and RegTech providers to rethink the challenge and chart a course towards digitally-native compliance. If the sector engages now, it can reap enormous benefits for digital asset and TradFi compliance. Like a dog that has
Compliance teams can no longer assume that policies which mandate all communication channels are monitored safely behind the firm’s firewall are fit for purpose. Management teams must balance a three legged stool of surveillance policy: generation of alpha in the market, controlling conduct risk, and providing for employees’ wellbeing. In advance of JWG’s 23 June
2022 is a tipping point for the next generation of economic crime RegTech. Decentralised services are presenting unquantified levels of risk to the system and rules are moving fast to keep up. The good news: after 5 years of laboratory experiments and forests of reports, RegTech can provide a migration path for compliance regimes. In
With sanctions freezing assets and restricting trade, digital compliance strategies are being reworked this year. In this article we explore the impact of putting digital trade barriers in place, which will also be discussed at our 23 June virtual seminar. Register Here 2022 sanctions policy Financial services have seen a significant increase in the number
I listened into a very interesting webinar presented by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) earlier this year about their usage of and experimentation with what all regulators seem to be calling ‘suptech’ these days. Now there was variance on the webinar among FCA speakers around the pronunciation of said moniker—’soup-tech’ was one variant, ‘supp-tech’
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is seeking to improve its market surveillance technology and has tendered for a systems upgrade, a sentiment analysis tool and data sets. It is looking to update and develop the functionality, scope, or capabilities of its existing solution, according to the FCA’s procurement portal. The regulator collects trade information
Rulings by the Belgian and French data privacy authorities (DPAs) emphasise the risk posed by social media monitoring and scraping technology to firms and regulators such as the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that commonly use such tools for sentiment analysis, as well as to monitor individuals’ and organisations’ online activity. “The public nature of the personal data available
The CEO’s reporting challenge is considerable. Regulators are asking firms to raise the standard of regulatory returns to the same care and diligence given to financial reports and Basel IV is on its way for 2023. New approaches to interpreting reporting obligations and validating the calculations required with additional data sources can help. JWG, an
Yesterday, 22 digital asset regulators and market participants gathered virtually across 39 jurisdictions to debate the RegTech challenges presented by digital assets. Tracking this sector’s regulatory obligations is like playing a three dimensional game of chess and small details can make or break markets. In this article we recap where we took away, how you
The UK’s finance ministry yesterday announced its plans to regulate certain stablecoins within existing payments regulation and begin to formulate its regulatory framework for crypto assets. HM Treasury has commissioned the Royal Mint to create a non-fungible token (NFT) this summer to mark the UK’s ambition to become a crypto-asset hub. “We see enormous potential
As the digital asset sector matures and policy makers design new rules to oversee this market, compliance has become a strategic battleground for market participants. Regulations that prescribe controls over ‘who trades what’ are being drafted and will include many check boxes for the transaction lifecycle. The great news is that TradFI has developed RegTech
Yesterday, President Biden fired the starting gun for the US regulators’ race to control Digital Assets. Crypto enthusiasts have been looking for regulators to take firm positions on whether digital assets race on Formula 1, NASCAR, or Motocross tracks. Regardless, it will be RegTech that is waving the chequered flags very soon. Join an all-star
Crypto bros might struggle to see it this way, but digital asset regulation has moved at great pace in a short time. Will it be fit for purpose? With interoperable standards on the way, RegTech has the power to unify digital and TradFi rails. Join an all-star cast on 5 April for our virtual conference
The great work-from-home experiment forced traders from the office and digital surveillance teams into overdrive. RegTech can provide a path forward through serious legal obstacles that stand in the way of effective oversight. However, good compliance is not just about the tech and we need collaborative action to make surveillance RegTech fit for purpose. The
This year we will be producing 3 seminars which will facilitate regulator, firm and supplier collaboration and to develop and encourage interoperability between TradeFi and digital waves. We are inviting Digital Asset, Crypto and TradFi market participants to join our 2022 Digital Finance Programme which will explore our global research and the role of Digital
Global regulators are producing a steady flow of operationally-intensive rules focused on new digital risks in 2022. Amongst them, cybersecurity is emerging as a top pain point as more persistent attacks threaten banking supply chains. New, deeper and aligned controls are now the order of the day. In this article we summarise the main components
With newly minted FS reporting strategies, the EU and UK are focused on enabling the fasteners of digital finance. This article summarizes the 2022 transformation drivers for public and private sectors, and how you can get involved in DRR. 2022 transparency drivers As we discussed in our 2022 Outlook, digital assets are coming into the
The aim of this group is to look at the broader frame of supervisory technology (SupTech) with a view to creating a paper covering challenges and 2022 priorities
New digital rails are being laid next to traditional finance (TradFi) which puts RegTech in the critical role of integrating markets and defining safety standards. In our inaugural episode of RegCast here we lay out the key themes which peek over the horizon as JWG enters its second decade of RegTech. RegTech meets Digital Finance
The aim of this group is to look at the broader frame of supervisory technology (SupTech) with a view to creating a paper by December 2021 covering challenges and 2022 priorities
The aim of this group is to look at the broader frame of supervisory technology (SupTech) with a view to creating a paper by December 2021 covering challenges and 2022 priorities
Executive summary As regulators focus on Operational Resilience firms need to realign their risk frameworks Without this alignment, firms risk overlaps and gaps in their controls Third parties play a key role in aligning controls and service metrics for your board Fines or excessive cost benchmarks are in store for those that get it wrong
Behavioural monitoring and conduct analytics technology promise to make it easier for firms to detect employee misconduct as well as predict where it might occur next. However, reliance on data- and technology-led solutions may fail to deliver insights and controls, while increasing firms’ exposure to data privacy risks and ethical issues. The emergence of surveillance
Advances in digitalisation in recent years have made an impact on all areas of life and the payment sector is no exception. Use of cash has been in decline for years, a trend was only accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. With the majority of commerce no longer dependent upon cash, it’s no surprise that both
The Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)-convened Artificial Intelligence Public-Private Forum (AIPPF) this month discussed potential accountability and governance frameworks that could form future guidance for the use of AI in financial services. Senior management accountability as well as the creation of a chief AI officer role were contemplated as oversight options,
The aim of this group is to look at the broader frame of supervisory technology (SupTech) with a view to creating a paper by December 2021 covering challenges and 2022 priorities
Regulatory reporting is moving out of the backwater and into the limelight. New RegTech tooling is here and leaders are deploying it now and regulators are defining their SupTech approaches. The regulators and regulated have all made progress and the sector is building momentum in Q4. Register Here Regulatory demands picking up pace Last quarter
JWG Q421 research reveals major regulatory battles for information on third parties in 2022, which has massive implications for FS suppliers. Combined with Cloud, AI and other new controls, knowing your supply chain just became a lot more critical and complicated. Without standard supply chain messages, regulators, regulated firms and their suppliers run the
Technology, data and infrastructure provision to banks now puts 3rd parties on the critical path for systemic oversight. Knowing your supply chain just became a lot more critical and complicated. There is an opportunity to take the pain away with a more joined up approach that requires senior engagement, trust and ‘safe space’