Supporting the Development of RegTech Firms

11 Dec 2015 01:19 PM

FCA Call for Input - Supporting the Development and Adoption of RegTech

The potential to develop Fintech tools applied to regulation and compliance was discussed and formed one of the key recommendations in the Go Science Fintech Futures Report. RegTech, as it was designated, was identified as having the potential to make financial regulation and reporting more transparent, efficient and effective, as well as reducing the costs of compliance:

'Regulators should engage the FinTech community in automating regulation and compliance to create a state-of-the art regulatory reporting and analytics infrastructure, which we have called 'RegTech'.

Support for innovative reporting and compliance technologies was also announced in the Budget:

'The FCA, working with the PRA, will also identify ways to support the adoption of new technologies to facilitate the delivery of regulatory requirements – so-called 'RegTech'

The recommendation was to both catalyse the development of these firms and to encourage the adoption of innovative processes they develop in financial services institutions. On the back of that recommendation, the FCA has launched its call for input to explore how to best support the sector and is seeking views on:

• where RegTech may deliver outcomes that improve efficiency and transparency
• where efforts should be foucssed to best ensure collaboration between various parties involved and interested in RegTech
• the challenges and risks faced by FinTech firms in providing RegTech to financial services firms and those faced by financial services firms in adopting RegTech
• whether there are existing regulatory rules, policies and guidance which are restricting innovation and the adoption of RegTech solutions

techUK is keen to support the development of RegTech and is looking for interested members to submit their views. We are currently exploring dates in February for a techUK roundtable to look at the development of RegTech and that should be confirmed shortly.