Compliance


Stripe payments land in Europe

US payments firm Stripe has launched “Managed Accounts” for its Stripe Connect to marketplaces in the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway. Stripe says by using Managed Accounts, marketplaces in Europe can design “lightweight” setup flows, configure payment schedules, decide who pays fees, determine when information is collected, and more. Managed Accounts was launched […]

IBM and Crédit Mutuel Arkéa pilot blockchain ID project

IBM and Crédit Mutuel Arkéa have completed their first blockchain project to “improve” the French bank’s ability to verify customer identity. The result of the pilot is an operational permissioned blockchain network that provides a view of customer identity to enable compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements. “Blockchain is a transformative agent in our […]

Industry players unite for MiFID II implementation with Project Sentinel

Project Sentinel, a collaborative initiative by a group of banks to mutualise the cost of MiFID II implementation in the OTC front office, has announced the creation of a normalised regulatory data model that assists investment firms to meet their MiFID II OTC sales and trading requirements. Etrading Software, which has the project management office […]

The regulatory fintech sandboxes: are they really useful?

This truly has been the time of regulators announcing fintech sandboxes – what better thing to write about on my first fintech column here, than the ways regulators and fintechs can work together! There were three announcements in the past couple of weeks around regulatory sandboxes – the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) announced […]

FIX Trading Community releases standards for MiFID II transaction and trade reporting

FIX Trading Community, the non-profit standards body for the global financial trading industry, has unveiled the FIX Protocol for use for transmitting MiFID II Transaction Reports to Approved Reporting Mechanisms (ARMs). Under MiFID II, all investment firms (including certain buy-side institutions) executing transactions in financial instruments are required to report details of their transactions to […]

Top fintech stories this week – 10 June 2016

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Goldman Sachs to underpin new digital bank with Infosys tech It’ll be the e-Finacle digital banking platform, Banking Technology understands. Infographics: The Euro 2016 guide to e-commerce In the spirit of that football tournament that starts today, we’ve got an e-commerce […]

Infographics: FATCA and CRS – how ready are you?

As we enter a new era in global tax reporting with increasing regulations around tax transparency, Banking Technology and Thomson Reuters have gathered industry views from across the globe to piece together a full picture on the financial market’s readiness for the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and continued approach to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance […]

LSE and Boat Services launch trade reporting solution for MiFID II

London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Boat Services have launched Tradecho, a combination of the two companies’ existing and “complimentary” trade reporting services. LSE says by early Q1 2017, Tradecho will provide a single trade reporting venue and “complement” its T+1 MiFID (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive) and EMIR (European Market Infrastructure Regulation) transaction reporting services, […]

Linedata gains new asset management client in the US, Friess Associates

US-based Friess Associates, which manages around $1 billion for institutional and private investors, is automating its ops with Linedata Longview. The new investment management platform will support portfolio management, trading and compliance at Friess Associates. Linedata highlights asset-specific workflows of its offering, an interface that can be tailored to the various roles of disparate users, […]

Experian unveils CrossCore platform for fraud and identity services

Experian, the information services company, has launched its CrossCore platform for fraud and identity services. CrossCore has “plug-and-play” capability and lets companies connect any new or existing tools and systems in one place, whether they are Experian, internal or third-party partner solutions. Steve Platt, global EVP, fraud and identity, Experian, says: “New fraud threats, updates […]

OakNorth Bank heads to the cloud with Amazon

OakNorth says it has become the “first cloud-based bank” in the UK, eight months after launching. The bank, which provides loans of between £1 million to £15 million to “entrepreneurs and fast-growth” businesses, has been working with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for six months on policies related to […]

Webinar: FATCA & CRS Compliance: Are you ready?

We are now in a new era of global tax reporting, with more regulations around tax transparency than ever before. To pull together a full picture on the market’s readiness for the Common Reporting Standards (CRS) and approach to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), Thomson Reuters has gathered industry views from a global […]

Fintech vendor APS Financial gets UK credit licence

Advanced Payment Solutions (trading as APS Financial) has secured a credit licence from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This development allows APS to carry out consumer credit lending (including high-cost short-term credit lending) to its customer base of micro SMEs, sole traders and consumers. Rich Wagner, CEO and founder, APS Financial, says: “This credit […]

Pimco picks Kyc.com and Markit regulatory and compliance system

US investment management firm Pimco has selected Kyc.com and Markit for its due diligence and onboarding requirements. Pimco has opted for Counterparty Manager, Tax Utility, kyc.com and the “entire regulatory and compliance ecosystem”. Kyc.com and Markit say their “ecosystem” provides buy- and sell-side firms, and corporates with a solution for onboarding, KYC (Know Your Customer), […]

Bloomberg applies to join global LEI system

Bloomberg has applied to the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) to become a local operating unit (LOU) of the Global LEI System (GLEIS). By submitting this application, Bloomberg moves to the candidate stage of the LOU accreditation process and joins an existing network of LOU’s monitored by GLEIF. Peter Warms, senior manager of fixed […]

European Banking Federation pushing for global policy on cybersecurity

The European Banking Federation (EBF), the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA) and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) are planning global policy measures on cybersecurity, data and technology through a new set of common principles. In its paper, “International Cybersecurity, Data and Technology Principles”, the organisations want to create a “starting point for dialogue […]

Sapient releases RegRecon for reconciliation and regulatory reporting

Sapient Global Markets, a technology and consulting services firm, has launched RegRecon for reconciliation and regulatory reporting accuracy. RegRecon offers automated trade matching and reconciliation, break management and resolution workflow. It is available as a standalone solution and managed service, or within Sapient’s CMRS (compliance management reporting system) platform. Arun Karur, vice-president at Sapient, says […]

PNC Financial Services automates reg reporting with AxiomSL

AxiomSL is implementing its flagship regulatory reporting platform at US-based PNC Financial Services. PNC, one of the largest banks in the US, will use the solution for its reg reporting needs in the domestic market, plus Canada and the Bahamas. Alex Tsigutkin, CEO at AxiomSL, says the vendor is “proud to have been chosen by […]

How do MARket participants justify surveillance spend in an era of cost cutting?

With MiFID II now confirmed and MAR just around the corner, Dave Tolladay of Alerts4 Financial Markets examines the key questions facing financial institutions having to increase trade surveillance monitoring spend while reducing costs. Between €500 and €700 million – that’s the estimated one-off compliance cost to be imposed on financial firms carrying out a […]

UK’s Financial Conduct Authority selects Sopra Steria for new regulatory platform

Paris-based Sopra Steria has been selected by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to deliver a new digital regulatory market data processing platform in an “exclusive” six-year contract. The new platform will support the FCA’s on-going regulation of firms, as well as encompassing new requirements under the forthcoming Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II). […]

Bolivia’s banking community adopts Swift’s KYC

Bolivia’s banking community has connected to Swift’s Know Your Customer (KYC) Registry, a centralised repository which maintains a standardised set of information about financial institutions required for KYC compliance. Since December 2014, the KYC Registry has been adopted by more than 2,350 financial institutions globally to “complement” existing compliance programmes. In Latin America, the Registry […]

Will regulation be a blessing or a blow for Bitcoin?

The European Commission (EC) wants to update the fourth Anti-Money Laundering directive so that it also covers virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin. In the UK, the Treasury has followed suit by announcing plans to subject virtual currency exchanges to the same regulations as banks. This isn’t surprising. Gunnar Nordseth, CEO and co-founder of Signicat, muses over the possible […]

PDQ ATS picks Eventus platform for risk surveillance

Eventus Systems, a US-based provider of data processing and analysis solutions, has signed PDQ ATS for its flagship Validus risk and surveillance platform. PDQ ATS, an independent alternative trading system for equity market participants, will use Eventus’ Validus platform for a centralised look at trading, operations, surveillance, compliance and risk management information for both buy- […]

Swift to launch new payments data quality service

Swift will launch Payments Data Quality, a reporting and data analytics service to help financial institutions comply with new international requirements for originator and beneficiary information in payments messages. The service will be available in Q3 2016 and Swift says it will help banks monitor their compliance with the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) Recommendation […]

NICE Actimize launches AML Essentials for mid-sized FIs

NICE Actimize hopes to muscle into the mid-tier banking sector with the launch of AML Essentials, an anti-money laundering cloud-based platform. It will be delivered on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. The solution offers transaction monitoring, CDD (customer due diligence) and KYC (know your customer), and watch list filtering to reporting and SAR (suspicious […]

Money 20/20 Europe: KYC/ID, commerce disruption and femtech round-up

Here’s a round-up of yesterday’s (5 April) panel discussions at Money 20/20 in Copenhagen. In “Knowing me, knowing you: Streamlining KYC, ID and customer onboarding” the issues of identity and how service providers are using new technologies for verification were examined. A question to the audience as to whether ID-based payments are dead received a […]

FATCA and CRS survey: how ready are you?

With the new era in global tax reporting, Thomson Reuters is conducting a survey to gauge the level of the industry’s readiness for FATCA and CRS. Evolving global regulations around tax transparency are challenging organisations around the world to implement new procedures. Are you ready? We are calling on you to help us create a […]

Commerzbank live on SAP HANA for finance and risk management

Commerzbank is now live with an integrated set of finance and risk solutions powered by the SAP HANA platform. SAP says the bank has more than 70% of its balance sheet running on SAP Bank Analyzer and SAP Accounting for Financial Instruments. It adds that Commerzbank is able to close its monthly books “significantly faster”, […]

European Commission asks for ESMA rethink on MiFID II

MiFID II is delayed yet again as the European Commission (EC) asks the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) for a “rethink”. ESMA has received a letter from EC concerning certain parts of the regulation draft. EC wants a rewrite of three technical standards that govern trading on commodities, exemptions for companies providing support market […]

Wolters Kluwer signs new client in Poland, Bank Pocztowy

Poland-based Bank Pocztowy is implementing a new risk management system, OneSumX, supplied by Wolters Kluwer. The solution will support the following areas: asset and liability management (ALM), market risk, liquidity risk, and credit risk (for the Basel III capital charges calculation). The bank will also use Wolters Kluwer to provide funds transfer pricing (FTP) analysis […]

Aktia Bank signs for Accuity’s Global WatchList, perseveres with core system conversion

Finland-based Aktia Bank is implementing Accuity’s Global WatchList to provide regulatory sanctions and other compliance data. The solution covers politically exposed persons (PEPs), companies, vessels, goods, countries and payment information. Accuity says that Aktia’s decision to sign for the Global WatchList was driven by the compliance needs and the need to improve the efficiency of […]

Equiniti acquires Risk Factor and KYCnet

Equiniti Group has completed the purchase of Risk Factor and KYCnet. The acquisitions are part of Equiniti’s strategy of buying specialist technology platforms to provide regulation driven services for its clients. Last year it bought Transglobal Payment Solutions, while back in 2012 it acquired investment system supplier Peterevans. It also purchased a UK-based lending software […]

US to move to shorter T+2 settlement cycle by September 2017

Make a note, 5th September 2017 has been unveiled as the industry target for the US to move from a T+3 to a T+2 settlement cycle. The decision on this has been reached by the US T+2 Industry Steering Committee (T+2 ISC), organised by The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and co-chaired by the […]

Big data analytics and its many uses

There are many uses of big data analytics by financial organisations to meet evolving regulatory and compliance requirements, Swift Institute reveals in its recent paper, “The Role of Big Data in Governance: a regulatory and legal perspective of analytics in global financial services”. The paper cites two case studies as examples of how these analytical […]

The state of compliance for financial services

Financial institutions need to determine how to comply with the least disruption and cost in the short time frames provided. Image courtesy of Datameer. Click on picture to enlarge or use zoom feature within browser. Or you can read the PDF here.

A whistle-stop tour of the regulatory calendar

As financial institutions across the board gear up for 2016, the year ahead poses some notably regulatory challenges. Not least among these is the impending Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) from the European Commission; there will also be further progress on MiFID II. On 3 July this year, an event will take place which will mark […]

Calastone launches global fund distribution solution, Data Services

London-based Calastone, the global funds transaction network, has launched Data Services, a market intelligence solution for fund managers. Calastone says that MiFID II, the European regulatory framework designed to “improve the transparency and oversight of financial markets”, is moving responsibility to understand the distribution chain from distributors and platform providers to fund managers. Rob Swan, […]

Kyc.com expands to Hong Kong and Singapore

Kyc.com, a joint venture between Markit and Genpact, has announced the expansion of its Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance and diligence service to Hong Kong and Singapore. This roll out is in addition to jurisdictional coverage in the US, UK and Australia which it launched in 2014. A number of banks are already signed up […]

MiFID II delayed

The European Commission has put markets out of their suffering by finally confirming a one year extension to the entry into application of the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, or MiFID II. The extension has been made to overcome technical implementation challenges faced by both regulators and market participants. The new deadline is 3 […]