Leaving a parent behind can sometimes feel dissatisfying at least and terrifying at worst as one is forced to mature, stand on ones own feet and leave the nest. Finding ones feet and carving out a self-identity are part of a natural coming of age process.
Regtech was born out of the Fintech (pronounced finn tech) financial technologies post the banking crisis of 2008 and has until recently lived primarily within its safe parental shadow. Reading many articles one would presume that RegTech continues to exist and develop primarily to support the banking and finance industries.
However over the last 18 months Regtech (pronounced either Redge tech or Regg tech depending on your personal preference and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise) has come of age and is finding its feet well beyond the safe rearing zone of Fintech. This partly because of the maturity and appliance of science and partly due to the ability of RegTech to cleverly adapt.
Some may have you believe that Regulatory Technology is bound at the hip to Financial technology because the two are directly interrelated through banking and finance regulations such as SMCR. Certainly its true that finance regulations drove the necessity of RegTech in its early stages of development.
However regulations span all industries and sectors, whether public or commercial. And regulations are on the increase in many countries of the world as well as across global trading boundaries. What this means is that the basis of RegTech in driving regulatory compliance can now be applied to pretty much any sector.
Regulations are largely about people, how they behave and what they should do. Regulatory technology is largely about assisting organisations to ensure they and their people meet regulatory requirements and standards. Consequently almost any organisation has a wealth of regulations to meet, as well as their people meeting internal policies, standards and procedures. Many organisations rely to some degree on 3rd parties to supplement their operations, 3rd party people also need to comply.
Then one should consider the regulatory burden placed upon the shoulders of senior managers in all sectors for a range of Acts for which they may be deemed personally responsible should breaches occur. Take the Bribery Act for example. Just like SMCR in finance and banking, breaches of the bribery act can have person repercussions for senior managers.
Due to the positive impact and wealth of organisation benefits provided by RegTech solutions one can argue that such solutions are now proven and mature enough to be applied to a wide landscape of need.
One may also argue positively that there are a wide range of authorities who would also benefit greatly from existing, maturing RegTech solutions being adapted for or re-targeted to the industries they represent. From our perspective a good example would be the UK Health and Safety Executive goals of ensuring a safe workplace benefitting from software solutions that drive HSE compliance.
Similarly, the rapid growth of artificial intelligence-driven RegTech solutions has allowed numerous applications to mature beyond their Fintech parent and will in time benefit wider society as they are applied to other business regulatory scenarios. Just think how sectors such as Government, healthcare, manufacturing, engineering and transport benefit from using new regulatory technology applied to their processes.
From our standpoint; regulations affect people in every sector and we set out to develop our RegTech people compliance solutions to solve people compliance issues and make life easier for organisations in every sector. We decided from day one that the benefits of RegTech apply to everyone and that has bene our approach to solution development.
From a UK perspective the appliance of Regtech to bring cross-sector benefits will increase, and may increase rapidly. With the expected exit from the European Union by many, organisations everywhere will as a consequence be required to reissue policies, procedures and standards for a UK market rather than purely being driven by EU directives. Regulations may align with historical versions but there may be subtle differences in content. Therefore updates will occur across hundreds of thousands of documents and people will be required to be updated and possibly re-trained.
Applying RegTech solutions to the process of new UK-centric regulatory compliance is a win-win scenario and will help accelerate and support the transition not only within Fintech, but in all sectors as long as RegTech has adapted to operate across sectors. Had RegTech remained in its infancy during such a momentous transition, supporting this change would be all the harder. Timing is everything and the maturing of RegTech is timely. In other areas of the world, change is also occurring across regions and society and RegTech will make a marked difference and offer new benefits to organisations outside of Fintech in most territories.
It is the very rapidly maturing of the RegTech market in itself which is allowing RegTech companies to leave the security of the Fintech sector, adapt and grow. In doing so the opportunity for more niche and focused RegTech solution opportunities will arise.
Regulations are about people, RegTech solutions are largely people solutions. Regulations are about ensuring rules are followed, which in turn ensures that we all benefit from working in a fairer, safer, more secure and successful society. Without rules we would live in a state of anarchy. The maturity and growth of RegTech beyond Fintech into a mature adult will benefit us all.
Contact Signarus to find out more about our RegTech people compliance solutions that benefit organisations in all sectors and industries. Call us on (UK) 020 7 788 9445 or email info@Signarus.com.
