Regulation is an expensive pain point for financial institutions. Some estimates put a price tag of up to a billion dollars on compliance-related tasks for large banks. Other estimates assert that over 10% of the workforce in financial institutions deals with compliance.
It is not surprising that an entire ecosystem of software solutions emerged in recent years to assist financial institutions in streamlining and automating regulatory activity. The demand for regulatory technology, or regtech as these solutions are often referred to, is expected to reach $118.7 billion by 2020, according to a Medici report.
The following is a list of notable regtech companies that are gaining momentum:
- Ayasdi: Ayasdi is a big data and analytics company that helps financial institutions with their risk management and modeling, making it easier to comply with Basel 3 and required stress testing. Among the company's customers in the financial industry are Citi and Credit Suisse.
- RedOwl Analytics: The RedOwl human risk analytics platform is used by information security and regulatory surveillance teams to mitigate the threat of malicious insiders. The company’s behavioral analytics platform integrates structured and unstructured data sources, providing visibility of human risk across the enterprise. The company was honored as an innovator in Security Innovation Network’s 2016 conference.
- Onfido: The company provides KYC (Know Your Customer) background checking for financial institutions available on any device. This enables companies to better service their customers while staying compliant with regulations. The company was features on the Fintech50 2016 list
- Trulioo: Trulioo provides ID verification for more than 400 companies to comply with KYC and anti-money laundering rules. The company counts as clients some of the world’s top payments, e-commerce, and financial service providers including PayPal, Stripe, Square, WorldRemit, Kickstarter, Braintree, and Amazon. The company won 'Best Identity Verification and Authentication Solution' at the 2016 CNP awards
- Elliptic: The company aims to transfer the rigorous security and compliance standards of traditional finance to the world of digital currencies. Elliptic was featured in the KPMG Fintech100 list.
- IdentityMind: IdentityMind has developed a comprehensive regtech platform to meet fraud prevention, AML, KYC, underwriting, sanctions screening and merchant portfolio risk analysis needs and requirements. The company claims it can help reduce account fraud at the onboarding stage by as much as 95 percent, and reduce manually reviewed transactions by as much as 80 percent.
- Fintellix: Fintellix provides risk monitoring & regulatory reporting in various countries. The company, headquartered in Bangalore, services major clients in the US, Europe, the Middle East and India. It is backed by major venture capital majors, Sequoia Capital and IDG Ventures.
- Ancoa: Ancoa provides contextual surveillance and analytics for exchanges, regulators, brokers and trading desks. The company’s software platform detects market abuse, gives insight on insider trading, and provides visibility of trading behavior in real-time and thus, provides a tool for automated auditing of transactional data. The company was awarded ‘Best Market Surveillance Product’ at the 2016 Operational Risk Awards.
- AQMetrics: AQMetrics is an integrated risk management, regulatory compliance and surveillance software provider. Using AQMetrics, firms can track investor activity, orders, executions and holdings, and receive risk alerts and notifications of compliance breaches.
- ComplySci: ComplySci uses web-based corporate compliance technology that leverages data networks and forensic analytics to monitor employee risk and automate code of ethics compliance. ComplySci protects its customers from reputational damage and revenue loss from non-compliant activities.