CBA and ING complete regtech pilot fling
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and ING have completed a regtech pilot to simplify processing of information and implementation of regulation using the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) as a test case.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was a “key member” of this experiment and participated as an observer of the project.
According to CBA, the FCA understands the benefits of collaboration in areas where an industry solution is beneficial for the overall system, such as compliance.
Observing the project gave the FCA greater understanding of the potential applications of regtech, natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI), and how these technologies can help organisations simplify and meet their compliance obligations.
Supun King-Jayawardana, head of CBA’s London innovation lab, says: “When regtech meets financial services, we create opportunities for banks, start-ups and regulators to collaborate and solve industry-wide challenges. By working together, we can share best practice in due diligence, experimentation costs, business knowledge and resources – ultimately driving great outcomes for all parties.”
The project, completed in partnership with fintech company Ascent Technologies and law firm Pinsent Masons, used NLP and AI to interpret and convert 1.5 million paragraphs of regulation into a series of “bitesize, actionable tasks appropriate for the banks”.
Using Ascent’s technology, the banks were able to identify items in the regulation that could be reviewed and actioned, “saving hundreds of hours of manual processing”.
As we wait to find out what they do next, you could relax, take a trip down memory lane and read about the “four regtech trends of 2017”.
