RegTech IntelligenceBackground: The EU digital asset agenda is not all about MiCA. To offer digital assets in Europe and the UK, firms and their suppliers will need to adhere to the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and corresponding UK regime in Q1 2025. Key insight: JWG, the industry’s regulatory think-tank has used its AI-natural language
Generative AI (GenAI) continues to evolve quickly and shows great promise for financial institutions. But here’s the catch: senior management regimes, like SM&CR and SEAR, hold ‘Senior Executives’ accountable for compliance, not machines. So, how do SMFs/SEFs tick all the boxes which (in the EU) are written into the new EU AI Act or (in
Since the year 2000, banks have been fined almost a third of a trillion dollars. Yet, every year billions more are imposed. Why? This book explains why banks break the law (it’s not just the money), explains the challenges facing Compliance functions, considers that the majority of financiers don’t want to do wrong, and puts
New JWG research JWG, the trusted financial services regulatory intelligence company, has announced the publication of a ground-breaking research paper ‘Embedded Compliance Unlocked: Leverage AI-enabled compliance tooling now to be ready for 2025.’ With the relentless demand for improved compliance and cost/income ratios, financial institutions of all sizes are experiencing pressure to upgrade their approaches.
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
New JWG research JWG, the trusted financial services regulatory intelligence company, has announced the publication of a ground-breaking research paper ‘Embedded Compliance Unlocked: Leverage AI-enabled compliance tooling now to be ready for 2025.’ With the relentless demand for improved compliance and cost/income ratios, financial institutions of all sizes are experiencing pressure to upgrade their approaches.
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 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
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
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
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
The way we look at economic crime risks and controls is changing. Sanctions and other drivers have forced institutions to take a more holistic view of risk disciplines and integrate process that on-board clients, screen their transactions and monitor the marketplace. This policy space is ideally suited for an idea contributed by a late RegTech
As sanctions barriers rise and market access is cut off for a digitized market, AML/TF and Surveillance capabilities need to respond quickly with safe and appropriate RegTech. Join us on 23rd June as 16 market SMEs discuss what this means and what comes next. Register Here In this seminar, leading AML, KYC, Terrorist Financing, Sanctions
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
Five years since RegTech challenges for Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Transaction Monitoring were first articulated, regulators continue to inch towards policies which would enable firms to cut into the $1.6 trillion[i] which pass through banks undetected. Is the industry ready to take the next step? In this article we recap the challenge for digital
Culture war topics, the spread of misinformation, and the war in Ukraine have further complicated firms’ social media presence and their efforts to craft policies guiding what employees should and should not say online. Firms should reassess policies guiding employees’ social media posts on accounts linked to the company and weigh up whether they are
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
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
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
We are delighted to reveal more details for our annual conference. With so much happening in this space – make sure that you know what risks are coming and how to tackle them! See details below and sign up now to hear a great cast of regulators, academia, firms and suppliers discussing the next generation
In an increasingly digital sector with divergent rule sets, the ability to manage the global compliance deltas in complex senior management accountability rules is fast becoming a critical differentiator for senior management seeking to work across borders. As we summarized in our latest Beacon, JWG’s surveillance community has covered quite a patchwork of regulatory obligations
16 March 2021 TSS 23: GameStop, Conduct Risk, Culture and KPIs Meeting objectives The group met to discuss the impact beyond the broadsheet news of GameStop hearings on wholesale and retail surveillance agendas and the impact on how firms manage conduct and culture risk? TSS Members can access to the 21-page presentation in the members’
Digital regulatory reporting – tipping point 2021 By PJ Di Giammarino, CEO JWG Group New JWG research has found supervisors to be focused on creating new standards for interpreting complex data needs in 2021 as the industry hits a tipping point for in its quest for digital standards that simplify complex regulatory reporting obligations. Global
A UK Government-led forum in its third year. A dynamic and engaging event bringing together the leading public and private sector actors from the UK, China and Southeast Asia to exchange knowledge and innovative practical techniques and solutions to tackle financial crime and related issues. A vibrant and vital interaction between policymakers, regulatory bodies, law
Collaboration to finally realize GFC reforms via digitalization The good news about compliance is that financial firms are finally getting the last generation of G20 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) regulations under control, said PJ Di Giammarino, CEO of JWG, a financial regulation think-tank based in London. The not so good news is that the industry
The European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) extensive proposed guidance to the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) could force the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to make some early decisions to diverge from the regime. “One of the questions is what does the FCA really think about the MAR review? This is where the rubber begins
Can suptech take DeFi to the next level? As technology-driven decentralised finance (or DeFi) grows in popularity and market value, it appears that a battle is brewing between DeFi protocols and regulators. But can technological tools in the hands of regulators head this off at the pass? A reasoned, transitional approach to compliance, along with
The UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has commissioned 11 skilled persons reviews under Section 166 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 into firms’ regulatory reporting in the last two quarters. The PRA commissioned nine prudential s166 reviews of deposit takers in the fourth quarter 2019/20 (December through February), according to publicly available information.
FS Compliance officers have been hit with an unprecedented deluge of 3,021 COVID-19 alerts 2 months into the pandemic, which JWG forecasts to be a total of 15,695 documents by year end. Regulators expect firms to be able to navigate these difficult circumstances while delivering fair outcomes for customers and complying with existing rules. That’s one of the clear messages in these 3,000 plus regulatory updates. Better RegTech tooling is
By PJ Di Giammarino Over the past few years, financial services firms have been investigating how to improve trade-related surveillance capabilities and techniques. Expectations from regulators and senior management have been placed under the microscope, mainly due to high surveillance noise levels across all communication channels and asset classes. In tracking this evolution of technologies
As we enter the year in which we will celebrate the 10th birthday of the G20 plan to make our financial services sector safe we wonder whether we are making enough progress? Armies of compliance staff are now required to run the firm and the standing armies are brought on in to help with the
New JWG research has found 374 ‘legislative initiatives’ targeted at financial services due in the next three years globally and regulators are increasingly less tolerant of poor data quality which is ever more crucial in demonstrating compliance. Thanks to MarkLogic, we are pleased to be able to host a global discussion on our findings. Come
You may have noticed that we snuck out a complete refresh of our websites this week. The revamped pages bring our thought leadership and technology offerings together for the first time. After 1,000,000+ page views from 190 countries since 2012, this was a big migration. Why do it now? Well, as readers of these pages
JWG are pleased to announce a partnership with BMO Capital Markets (BMO) where it will provide BMO access to its AI-powered, natural-language processing change management system — RegDelta. Ten years after the financial crisis, the financial services industry continues to face a changing and complex landscape, and this is particularly true for capital markets. RegDelta™
It is no secret that the City of London is a significant pillar of the UK economy. With financial services accounting for around 12% of the UK’s economic output, it generates more tax revenues than any other industry. It comes as no surprise then that the post-Brexit UK-EU relationship relating to financial services is a key
With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into force, it is time to reflect on such a huge overhaul of the data protection laws affecting every organization operating within the UK and the EU, from schools to large multinationals. To put things into perspective, in the UK alone, GDPR impacts over 500,000 data controllers
The PowerPoint slide show in the clip above is a presentation which was delivered by JWG’s CEO, PJ Di Giammarino, at an Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Roundtable hosted by Burgess-Salmon and Grant Thornton on 10 May 2018. The main issues addressed in the presentation are summarised in this article.
One of the key conclusions reached at our Capital Markets conference on 7 March was that regulatory divergence as a potential consequence of Brexit is currently one of the main worries for financial firms. When polled, 53% of our audience indicated that Brexit will be their next significant regulatory challenge. This anxiety derives mainly from
The GDPR broadens and deepens the rules between data controllers and data processors for processing of personal data and for the first time, directly enforceable obligations are imposed on processors as well as controllers. The GDPR also requires that controllers and processors enter into written contracts (“C2P Clauses”). Practical Law recently published its data processing
This piece looks ahead to what we might expect as IT law developments in 2018. Unusually as we go into a new year, the main headlines of what IT lawyers can expect in 2018 are signposted at the outset: new financial services laws in January, the GDPR in May and looking ahead to Brexit in
A key focus of our RegTech Capital Markets conference this year was ‘the future of rule books and policy controls’. To discuss this topic, we assembled a panel of experts including Paul North, Head of Product Management EMEA at BNY Mellon, Alan Blanchard, Senior Associate and Handbook Publisher at the FCA, Mark Sweeting, Head of Strategic Change, Basel Measurement
At this year’s RegTech Capital Markets Conference a debate took place on the benefits of using RegTech for trade surveillance in the context of the evolving technical landscape, led by expert industry professionals on compliance and surveillance. Taking into consideration the volume and quality of data firms are expected to monitor, whether the current system
I was pleased to chair our third RegTech Capital Markets conference last week in London. Team JWG worked hard to get a global audience of over 350 senior individuals from more than 65 financial institutions as well as the vendor and regulatory community to frame a holistic perspective on where the industry is on its journey up
Several interconnected global trends have heightened the risk banks face when combating financial crime. First, regulators are continually revising rules as they expand their focus from organised crime to global terrorist networks, many of which have grown more sophisticated in recent years. Second, integrated networks and an increase in cross-border transactions have left gaps in
In financial services there is a chasm stretching out between key players when it comes to regulation. This chasm comes with a huge risk of plummeting, and what lies at the bottom? Hefty fines for non-compliance? Unmet policy goals? Unintended Consequences? All of the above, and what is causing this rift? Semantics. The language used
The past year has been illuminating for the RegTech market, the past twelve months has seen an increase in discussion on the application of technology to regulatory compliance. We have seen action from the regulators, including the FCA’s recent TechSprint in which we at JWG were involved, and major regulatory initiatives, most notably MiFID II,
Everywhere we turn these days, we find new opportunities to explore what RegTech is all about. New training courses, associations and of course conferences abound. With so much momentum now behind the RegTech agenda, the market needs to be on the same page about standards, collaboration and technological capabilities. This is why we are so
2017 saw significant developments in financial and regulatory technological innovation – and many regulators have been moving in parallel. What is going on? In a nutshell, the global collaborative fabric is coming together. Of course, the landscape for global collaboration is by its very nature a patchwork that reflects differing policy objectives across the globe.
JWG are delighted to be hosting the 3rd annual instalment of the RegTech Capital Markets Conference on 7 March 2018 in London. Over 300 people have already confirmed their attendance to hear thought leaders from both the regulatory and private sector. Overall, there will be 5 speakers from the regulatory community, over 25 from top
Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence originally published this article on 21/12/2017. Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence speaks to important figures in the compliance and financial arena to hear their thoughts and discuss wider issues related to their fields. Today we talk to PJ Di Giammarino founder and CEO of regulatory think-tank JWG–IT, trusted by the global financial
Technology collaboration reduces financial institutions regulatory gap analysis by 85% – linking regulatory obligations to internal policies in a cost effective, automated and auditable fashion. London, UK – 1 November 2017 – JWG, the trusted industry experts in regulatory change management, and ClauseMatch, a leading global provider of document collaboration for financial institutions, legal firms and
Regulation is constantly changing and evolving, reflecting the turbulent and innovative nature of financial services, with hundreds of regulators in different regions and financial spheres formulating regimes and detailing the obligations firms must prove compliance with. The implication for any firm is that keeping track can be a drain on resources – and risky if
Before the climb, you must have a vision of what success will feel like. You may not know the precise route, but a general direction, who you need beside you and a sense of the milestones along the way are key to getting in the right frame of mind. After 8 years of compliance efforts,
After the financial crisis in 2008, there was an effort to put in place regulation to support the markets and prevent such a crisis in the future by, in the words of Mark Carney, moving the global financial system “from fragility to resilience”. In his recap of what a difference a decade makes, however, we
7 March 2017 marked the first anniversary of the implementation of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR). The rules set out by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority seek to instil a culture of conduct and responsibility across the UK banking sector by focusing on individual accountability and placing explicit standards on
On 3 April 2017, ClauseMatch and JWG were pleased to announce the development of a unique solution to simplify and better structure how regulatory changes are driven through internal banking policies. The prototype, linking internal banking policies with constantly changing regulations, was created by senior developers from JWG and ClauseMatch during the autumnal session of
As the public cloud services market continues to mature and grow – up from $178bn in 2015 to $209bn in 2016, according to research company Gartner[1] – the concentration of computing resources into cloud data centres is increasingly attracting the attention of NPEs as a target for patent litigation. At a time when data security
The financial services industry is nearing a regulatory crisis point; detailed rules are being written in huge volumes, by regulatory bodies struggling to keep up with their mandates. The result: requirements that are habitually not well contextualised or articulated and often look unlikely to achieve the desired outcomes, but at the same time coming with
On 28 February 2017, I was pleased to chair our second RegTech Capital Markets Conference in London. As many have been asking how it measured up to our expectations, here’s a recap and an overview of what we think comes next. With a very senior audience of over 260 attendees from top-tier banks, buy-side firms
The regulators that oversee the economy are drowning in oceans of data, but need better standards to make sense of it all. The struggle stemming from the lack of standardised data was clearly visible in 2012 when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) needed to trace the so-called ‘London whale’, a trader who accumulated Credit
Looking at the FinTech and RegTech conversations in 2017 we find that there is considerable confusion about some basic terms, definitions and relationships amongst policy makers, academics and practitioners alike. The now much more popular term is being used to describe many things. When you say RegTech, do you mean it to be a subset
The rise of [insert-abbreviation-here]Tech companies signifies a pragmatic shift of business consciousness toward solutions that make use of advances in modern technology. In the banking sector, the magnitude and complexity of firms has immobilised the possibility for innovation. FinTech solutions attempt to combat this issue by producing new and intuitive services for banks and the
At JWG, through tracking key regulatory bodies including ESMA, FCA, FINRA and CFTC, we have picked up key documents for different legislative initiatives such as Dodd-Frank, EMIR, MiFID I, MiFID II and the Commodity Exchange Act. We have sourced over 1000 documents in relation to trade and transaction reporting. In the past month alone, we
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published its third consultation paper (CP3) with regards to the implementation of the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) on 29 September 2016. MiFID II, which comes into effect on 3 January 2018, is aimed at making markets more efficient, transparent and responsible. Strengthening consumer protection is one
On Wednesday 14 September, the EU Financial Affairs Sub-Committee heard evidence from Mr. Simon Gleeson, Partner at Clifford Chance, and Mr. Peter Snowdon, Partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, for its Brexit Inquiry into financial services. Over the course of an hour, the discussion focused on how UK firms might hope to invoke rights of ‘equivalence’
The FCA have now officially published the findings from their consultation with the industry on the development of RegTech. This is a much awaited document for those seeking to understand the direction of the regulator with regards innovation, particularly in the context of all the recent uncertainty in the wider regulatory landscape. It is evident
On 5 July, JWG hosted their RegTech Capital Markets Conference in London, attracting over 150 attendees from top tier banks, buy-side firms, vendors, lawyers and academics from across the industry. A speech from the FCA’s own Nick Cook at the start of the day told of the clear signs of progress being made and reiterated
So, it’s official. The voting public of the United Kingdom have made their decision and, with a 52% majority, the result is final – the UK has declared that it wants to leave the European Union. Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen the polls fluctuating wildly and the odds of leaving grew determinedly, sending
In our response to the FCA’s call for input on RegTech, we recommended framing the thinking via the RegTech domains to help enable the prioritisation of new technological solutions in the context of external regulatory circumstances. As we have stressed before, RegTech is about the application of technology to solve a specific regulatory problem, not
In November, the Financial Conduct Authority issued a call for input on facilitating the development and adoption of RegTech, or the use of technology to solve critical problems in compliance. JWG argued that new and proven tools can be employed but, to do so, the industry must first collaborate in a ‘RegTech commons’ to set
With JWG’s RegTech conference coming up on 5th July, we thought it wise to spell out a few of the most pressing issues up for discussion on the day. Our first panel – Unblocking the ecosystem* – will provide a comprehensive review of the barriers to RegTech development and adoption. On this topic, we have
We are pleased to publish the 14th edition of our members only newsletter, RegBeacon. RegBeacon, is now available here. In this quarter we look one of the most contentious periods since the G20 agreed the regulatory reform agenda seven years ago. As politicians, courts, regulators, and firms wrestle with the same issues, we see a
In our previous article, we argued that a number of next-generation technologies have the potential to dramatically disrupt the financial sector’s manual and outdated legacy infrastructure which is, as we write, fighting a losing battle with the ever-growing pile of regulatory rules. It’s curious. With thousands of actors spending billions on hundreds of technologies –
An EY report released this week in conjunction with the UK Treasury, declared the UK to be the highest ranking FinTech sector in the world with a market size of £6.6 billion. The authors predominantly attributed this to the UK’s accommodative regulatory regime for startups and the associated disruptive technologies they bring to market. We
Only hours before JWG’s Customer Data Management Group (CDMG) met on 23 February, an announcement was made that more than a third of firms that submitted their responsibilities under the Senior Managers Regime (SMR) had been rejected for technical reasons. The UK FCA/PRA SMR passed its first major milestone for grandfathering on 8 February and
In answering the Government’s demand for the UK to become a leader in the RegTech field, the FCA issued a call for input in November. Given that JWG have been supporting the development of RegTech – via this publication and our other activities – for a decade now, we thought it would be helpful to
There will no doubt be many concerned faces amongst senior management this year as the new rules for the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMR) come into force over the next 12 months. The first implementation date will be in February 2016 when firms will have to submit documents for grandfathering, then commencement of the
The FCA has just dropped their comprehensive review of UK banking culture, which focused on whether pay, promotions or incentives in the financial sector encourage malpractice. Shortly after its announcement last year, it has been shelved, with the FCA citing that each business is unique and thus cannot easily be compared. To some this is
JWG analysis. Tracey McDermott, acting Chief Executive of the FCA, called last week for a more sustainable regulatory framework that does not just reflect the atmosphere of the time. She was referring to what is being increasingly seen as the regulatory pendulum – the process of intense regulation following a financial crisis which then wears
JWG analysis. The ousting of Martin Wheatley from the Financial Conduct Authority during the summer is a sign that the UK Government wants to take a stand on ‘bank bashing’, sending a global message that London is a bank friendly capital, and that there will be more emphasis on individual responsibility. During this year, there
By Darragh O’Grady and JWG. Regulatory requirements coming in over the next 3 years will mean firms need to know – and prove that they know – more things about their customer than ever before. Combined with the growth of ‘digital banking’, firms are now having to innovate on the digital front, whilst ensuring compliance