Arachnys, the leader in Customer Risk Intelligence (CRI) solutions for Client Onboarding, Know Your Customer (KYC), Customer Due Diligence & Enhanced Due Diligence (CDD/EDD) and Anti Money Laundering (AML), today announced the launch of their CRI cloud-native platform.

Customer Risk Intelligence is an entirely new approach to Client Onboarding, KYC, CDD, EDD and AML investigative activities. It enhances the speed, accuracy and re-use of information for KYC and onboarding; uplifts the customer experience; accelerates revenue acquisition, streamlines compliance efforts and transforms investigative “know-how” into an institutional asset.

The capabilities inherent in the Arachnys Customer Risk Intelligence platform address rapidly changing market dynamics which are compelling financial institutions, around the world, to focus on five “must-do” initiatives: real-time money laundering interdiction, competitive differentiation with accelerated client onboarding, syndication of investigative knowledge, re-use of compliance data exhaust and analyst empowerment.

With Customer Risk Intelligence, financial institutions can trim weeks from onboarding times to drive topline revenue, avoid the sunk expense of AML remediation cost and dramatically increase investigative throughput by reducing false-positives and QA error rates.

The foundations for a firms’ Customer Risk Intelligence platform are: a cloud-native solution suitable for global use; an entity-centric infrastructure and approach to compliance investigations; a curated online information library tailored to the firm’s compliance policies and risk knowledge management capability for capturing, organizing and leveraging prior analyst work. Once in place, CRI harnesses and transforms a firm’s institutional and people assets for competitive differentiation and true financial crime prevention.

“Banks today face significant KYC challenges in sourcing data, extracting meaningful intelligence and efficiently and accurately assessing risk. An approach that solves for these bottlenecks will help improve customer experience, support regulatory compliance and contribute to KYC revenue enhancement,” said Neil Katkov, Head of Risk and Compliance at Celent. “A modern, cloud-based platform, coupled with an entity-centric approach, provides the lingua franca for evaluating corporate-wide risk and exposure. To do this, these capabilities must be delivered at critical junctures within the customer risk evaluation lifecycle.”

“We are solving extremely complex problems that require significant levels of financial crime and bank operations domain expertise which few, if any, other KYC, AML and Due Diligence solution providers have,” said Edward Sander, President at Arachnys. “Arachnys alone possesses the unique capability to acquire and distill complex risk data into highly useful risk decision content, the cloud and financial crime domain expertise and advanced technology mastery to create a consumable Customer Risk Intelligence platform. We’re at the intersection of a paradigm shift in the market for how entity data and investigative intelligence can transform business performance and we’re passionate about empowering investigative minds to stop bad actors and make the world a safer place.”

CryptoCompare, the global cryptocurrency market data provider, today announces the launch of its new API service in response to customer demand for more complex and highly scalable cryptocurrency data solutions.

CryptoCompare provides real-time, high-quality and reliable market and pricing data on 5,600+ coins and 260,000+ currency pairs globally, bridging the gap between the crypto asset and traditional financial markets. In addition, CryptoCompare has a strong track record investing in data methodology and data accuracy, evidenced by the recent Taxonomy of Crypto Assets and the regular Monthly Exchange Reviews. These initiatives serve to bring rigour to the cryptocurrency market data and provide institutional and retail investors with a reliable, accurate and clean data in support of their investment decisions.

The existing free API service enables individuals and organisations to retrieve cryptocurrency market and pricing data with a high degree of granularity, offering real time and historical data for all coins and exchanges with full market coverage. CryptoCompare’s robust infrastructure ensures highly available and scalable endpoints, delivering data to end users at the lowest latency possible. By way of example, CryptoCompare’s data is viewed between 20 and 180 million times per hour, peaking during times of higher market volatility.

The new commercial API service will be available in 3 different tiers, tailored to the cryptocurrency data needs of the institutional and retail investors as well as third parties, partners and developers. The commercial service will offer more flexibility such as extended historical data; customisable API endpoint solutions and call limits; dedicated support and service level agreements; and the ability to save/cache data locally for internal business purposes.

Finally, the tiered plans include commercial redistribution rights, enabling third parties greater flexibility in using CryptoCompare’s data for their crypto investment products or market data needs.

The new commercial API service is now live on the CryptoCompare website and has been rolled out to CryptoCompare’s universe of customers. CryptoCompare’s global infrastructure allows for high availability and performance, ensuring the fastest data delivery and the lowest latency possible for both free and commercial API services.

Charles Hayter, CEO and Founder of CryptoCompare, said: “We continually invest in our technology and APIs to ensure our infrastructure remains robust and both the retail and institutional investor can access data as needed to execute trades on their investment portfolios. We adhere to rigorous standards to safeguard data integrity, normalising global data sources to ensure consistency and confidence in the market.”

“We’re very excited to launch this extended API service to the crypto community, providing commercial licenses for third parties, partners and investors alike. We developed this new offering in response to demands from both individuals and institutions for more complex, often bespoke yet highly scalable cryptocurrency data solutions.”

International management consultancy Axis Corporate confirms its appointment to UnaVista´s recently-created Partner Programme for consulting firms.  UnaVista, part of London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), is one of the largest regulatory technology platforms globally. It helps over 1,000 firms reduce operational risk and increase business efficiency through access to its compliance and regulatory expertise and that of its software and consulting partners via the UnaVista Partner Programme.

UnaVista´s clients will be able to access Axis Corporate´s guidance on all areas of governance, risk management and control particularly in relation to their EMIR, MiFIR and SFTR reporting obligations. This recognises Axis Corporate´s specific expertise in securities services, regulation and RegTech which it will draw on to devise and implement solutions tailored to clients’ requirements.

Launched in September 2018, UnaVista’s Partner Programme for consulting firms complements its collaboration with technology providers which went live in February 2017 to assist businesses in their preparations for MiFID II.  The combination of consulting and technology partners delivers intelligence and support blending UnaVista´s own knowledge-base and experience with that of market-leading partner firms.  The programme also helps the platform´s clients anticipate and react to a constantly evolving global regulatory regime.

Pablo Beivide Cavia, Director, Axis Corporate said, “This partnership with UnaVista is a strong endorsement of Axis Corporate´s breadth and depth of consulting experience in guiding clients through the fields of governance and regulatory compliance.  It also strengthens our own proposition by leveraging UnaVista´s industry expertise.  UnaVista is committed to building a long-term relationship with its partners and we look forward to working closely with them over the coming years to deliver a deeply collaborative service for their clients.”

Wendy Collins, Managing Director, Global Head of Partners at UnaVista said, “We are delighted to welcome Axis Corporate to our innovative partner programme, which we are continuing to develop and grow. We look forward to a mutually beneficial partnership that leverages UnaVista’s regulatory expertise and Axis’ track-record of creating value for their clients through strategic advice.”

The Robotic Process Automation (RPA) market will continue to undergo dramatic and rapid maturation in 2019, but RPA companies are finding themselves at a tipping point: They will either grow into their lofty market valuations or we will start to hear the hissing of a deflating bubble and warning signs of a “hype cycle” crash. 

Over the last five years, RPA companies have focused on the “demand” side of the equation…general market understanding of the business value and willingness of prospects to try RPA. And I think most would say the industry has succeeded on the demand side. But now RPA companies must shift focus to the “supply” side of the equation…managing the demand by creating a supply of passionate and knowledgeable RPA leaders armed with capable software. 

How will the RPA landscape shift in 2019? 

1) Enterprise customers will begin demanding more from RPA companies: No longer is it enough to do a one-off Proof of Concept (POC) demo to win business. Customers will require use cases that show a clear path to enterprise scalability and quantifiable results.

2) Credentialing goes biometric: Leading RPA vendors are seeking to enhance security while improving the customer experience, so they are naturally looking to biometric authentication. Coupled with mobility and serverless computing (see point 4), biometric authentication provides a very powerful enterprise-secure RPA product. 

3) Regulatory compliance drives innovation: Yes, necessity is still the mother of innovation! Customers will increasingly look to RPA solutions that afford additional layers of auditability to satisfy regulatory requirements such as GDPR.

4) Serverless Computing with RPA eliminates need for dedicated servers: With improved architecture and licensing models, leading RPA vendors will allow customers to run as many bots as they want, when they want, without having to plan for capacity. 

5) RPA prices will continue to decline: Competition, commoditisation and more efficient licencing models such as consumption-based pricing will drive down prices while improving capacity usage levels for customers. 

6) Large software companies continue to acquire RPA capability: The recent SAP acquisition of Contextor continues the trend of large software companies wrapping in RPA to lower total cost of ownership by providing more automation capabilities out of the box. RPA companies that have built niche market plays around larger software applications will need to be nimble.

7) RPA products will continue to focus on unstructured data: Vendors will align with the macro shift of moving from data collection to data analysis, which will drive a focus on Cognitive Capture, NLP and AI algorithms to transform unstructured data into structured data that can be scored and delivered back to the enterprise to support improved decision-making.

8) Business Process Outsourding (BPO) providers will start to openly embrace RPA: To retain work otherwise at risk of being re-shored, BPOs will align as partners with RPA vendors as both a consumer and reseller.

9) Companies begin to create formal RPA roles: RPA at scale requires new roles such as Bot Trainer, Bot Developer and RPA Manager, largely filled with existing employees who have been upskilled. Companies will also begin to market their automation programs in recruiting efforts to attract talent.

10) 5G rollout allows more data on mobile devices: This promotes greater mobility, which translates into leading RPA vendors developing Mobile Software Development Kits (SDKs) that allow customers to interact with and manage RPA bots from anywhere.

Most large banks in Asia Pacific said that providing Open Banking services for their commercial clients is a key strategic initiative in their digital transformation programs, and many expect Open Banking to help them achieve double-digit revenue growth, according to a global research report by Accenture (NYSE: ACN).

Open Banking enables financial services commercial customers to share their financial data securely with banks and third parties, making it possible to easily transfer funds, compare products and manage accounts using application program interfaces (APIs).

According to the study, 90 percent of large banks in Asia Pacific said they plan to provide Open Banking services for their commercial clients, with half (50 percent) of the banks in the region expecting Open Banking to help them grow their revenues up to 10 percent and another one-third (33 percent) expecting it to help them grow their revenues up to 20 percent.

The report, “Opening Up Commercial Banking, The Brave New World Of Open Banking in APAC,” is based on a global survey of more than 750 executives at global banks, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and large corporations.

Among other key findings: Commercial bank customers in the region often want the same things that retail bank customers want — more-innovative processes and a better customer experience — which Open Banking can facilitate. When asked to identify the most significant benefit of using an Open Banking ecosystem platform, respondents in AsiaPac most often said gaining access to convenient and innovative banking services, cited by 30 percent and 20 percent of executives at large corporations and SMEs, respectively. 

Commercial bank customers also expect Open Banking to help them reduce complexity and implementation costs for bank connectivity (cited by 24 percent of large corporations and 23 percent of SMEs) and enable them to reach more clients and partners (cited by 19 percent of large corporations and 21 percent of SMEs). When asked to identify the business areas that could be most improved in partnership with their bank through Open Banking, respondents at SMEs in AsiaPac cited payments, finance and cash management, while large corporations cited finance, treasury management and payments.

“Much of the focus so far when discussing Open banking has been on the retail market, but value-creation can be just as big, if not bigger, in the commercial banking side,” said Fergus Gordon, a managing director at Accenture and banking practice lead for Asia Pacific. “Demand from businesses is clearly there for innovative services and banks have a lot to gain by tapping into those opportunities.”

The vast majority of large banks in Asia Pacific ― 80 percent ― have invested in Open Banking initiatives for their commercial customers or plan to do so next year, less than the 87 percent global average. But banks in the region plan larger investments than global counterparts to build out their Open Banking commercial platforms, offer third-party services and explore Open Banking use cases, with 39 percent planning investments of more than US$20 million, compared with 21 percent of banks in North America and 14 percent in Europe looking to spend that amount.

The study also found that more than one-third (41 percent) of commercial bank customers in the region already participate in Open Banking platforms and another 37 percent plan to do so in 2019 (compared with a 35 percent and 42 percent global average, respectively). When asked who they would prefer to partner with on Open Banking initiatives, three-quarters (75 percent) of large corporate clients and nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of SMEs cited their bank, in line with global figures; only 12 percent of large commercial clients would prefer a non-bank technology provider, while 16 percent of SMEs in AsiaPac said they would be more interested in partnering with a non-bank fintech company.

“Banks have the benefit of a long-standing relationship with their corporate customers, but the writing is on the wall for them to keep transforming and develop new Open Banking services as these innovations become more prevalent or they risk being left behind,” Gordon said. “They should pay particular attention to SMEs, who show a willingness to partner with non-bank fintechs and technology providers.”

IT and re-platforming projects in financial services have a reputation of running over time and budget. 

Kyriba, the #1 provider of cloud treasury and financial management solutions, today announced it has expanded its global ecosystem by adding WorldFirst, the foreign exchange and international payments expert, as a new strategic partner to further empower financial executives. 

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) today announced the launch of a new S$30 million Cybersecurity Capabilities Grant to strengthen the cyber resilience of the financial sector in Singapore and help financial institutions develop local talent in cybersecurity.

Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, today published a global research on data analytics from the Infosys Knowledge Institute. The survey titled, 'Endless possibilities with data: Navigate from now to your next', reveals that a majority of organizations are deploying analytics to enhance customer experiences and mitigate risk.

This research tries to understand how data analytics is becoming core to driving digital transformation for enterprises and makes an assessment of enterprise expectations in a world of endless possibilities with data. It also explores a range of challenges, opportunities, and the role of new technologies in the analytics world.

Highlights of the survey  

• 31% of respondents identified the use of analytics with experience enhancement. This includes using intelligence generated by listening to internal and external stakeholders to drive extreme personalization and high quality customer service
• 28% respondents were interested in leveraging analytics for risk mitigation - predicting risk to enable better decision making, and detecting anomalies that could disrupt business effectiveness
• Developing new business models by unearthing the latent needs of customers and offering innovative products and services was seen as the primary analytics requirement of 23% of respondents.
• Revenue and profit maximization through increasing channel effectiveness and thereby enhancing profitability across processes, channels and stakeholder ecosystems was the analytics priority for the remaining 18%.
• The majority of respondents in the U.S. (32%) and Europe (34%) stated they would like to use analytics for experience enhancement whereas in ANZ about 31% respondents consider it for risk mitigation

Functions across organization are benefiting from the possibilities of data. Finance and accounting was found to use analytics the most at 32%, followed by marketing and operations at 20% and 17% respectively. In terms of emerging technologies, Artificial intelligence was perceived to deliver increased outcomes when combined with analytics at 37% followed by IoT and Cloud Technologies at 19% and 16% respectively.

The survey found that enterprises in every industry encountered several challenges that prevented them from implementing their analytics initiatives fully. The biggest challenges stemmed from a lack of expertise in integrating multiple datasets (44% of respondents) and failure of understanding in deploying the right analysis techniques (43%). This is where enterprises are looking up to their partners to help industrialize their analytics capabilities by creating an analytics strategy, build an operational framework, and define a process for executing and governing analytics initiatives.

Satish H.C., EVP and Head, Data Analytics, Infosys, said, "In the world of endless possibilities that data provides, being data native is core for enterprises to being digital. As enterprises work with limitations of siloed systems, data integration issues, resources and skills, harnessing the possibilities with data will be essential to navigating their next. We believe that the findings of this survey will help our clients to fast-track their journey into a data-native enterprise by industrializing their analytics capabilities and ultimately monetize data."

Methodology  

Infosys commissioned independent market research company Feedback Business Consulting to undertake a study to understand how companies are using data analytics today and their expectations in a world of endless possibilities with data. The study was carried out by interviewing 1062 senior business and technology executives from organizations with annual revenues exceeding US$ 1 billion and 1000+ employees. Overall the respondents represented 12 industry groups from the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.