An informative webinar about the rising market of Regtech hosted by The Irish Advantage has successfully rounded off this week and we’ve highlighted some key takeaways from the one-hour panel session that you certainly don’t want to miss!
The exciting panel discussion started off with our CEO of Cynopsis Solutions, Chye Kit alongside three other thought leaders from the APAC region sharing their quick overview in their respective markets in terms of what had driven Regtech adoption so far. Deborah, the CEO of The Regtech Association in Australia firstly pointed out the combination of deficiency in the financial system and the covid situation formed a perfect storm for the association to get started to have a sensible and elevated conversation about Regtech to happen. Till date, it has become a global phenomenon that requires everyone’s collaboration. Tracing back to the Regtech initiative in Hong Kong, Brian from the Fintech Association of Hong Kong mentioned the consistent engagement with HKMA (Hong Kong Monetary Authority) since 2019 has led to today’s milestone where AML and CFT teams are working in parallel with FATF and technology adoption is being widely supported. Chye Kit shared that prior to 2016 when Regtech strived to become a trend, Cynopsis had been founded for two years with the foresight of solving the regulatory issues. In terms of the regulatory awareness in Singapore, the MAS has stood in the forefront of the times promoting a smart nation, as well as the awareness of Regtech especially during this pandemic time when the enhanced Regtech grant was announced to support local entities into this digitisation journey.
As we’re well aware, regulators in different jurisdictions have been making an effort to educate and assist the regulated entities in their respective markets. When asked about how the three speakers are seeing the translation from regulatory engagement to actual commercial Regtech adoption from their professional point of view, Deborah said the regulators have been proactive across the three primary regulators of financial services in Australia. The number one problem to be solved for financial institutions right now is the regulatory funds, followed by the various challenges of digital transformation in different states and last but not least, the rising compliance costs due to the ever-increasing regulations imposed by regulators. . Speaking of buying solutions versus building your own, Chye Kit pointed out in terms of the transformation of traditional FIs or banks, it’s unlikely for them to find something off the shelf since they may have their own ways of doing things typically. Those who want to adopt the “buy approach” may be looking for solutions scalable and customizable, indicating that solutions providers need to be capable of supporting systematic tweaks or changes required with continuous maintenance. Overall in Hong Kong, in addition to the rising Regtech adoption index, the trend is going in the right direction with the vision of FinTech 2025, said by Brian. Takeshi, the vice chairman of The Fintech Association of Japan indicated that under the guidance of FATF, companies and FIs in Japan are increasing their budgets to purchase RegTech solutions, in order to strengthen the AML/CFT frameworks set by their government.
Either if you’re looking to build or buy a Regtech solution on the market, here are some of the key traits a Regtech solution must possess, including record tracking, international accreditation around technology, as well as the provision of support and resources through their deployment period. An interesting fact is that back in the days in 2019, the average time of the first conversation to the full deployment was 14 months, compared to 8.4 months today. Chye Kit added from Cynopsis’ point of view, in the transformation from Regtech being a good-to-have option to a must-have, certainly we’re seeing a lot of interest from all over the world. According to his insightful prediction, regulations are only getting more complicated in 1 or 2 years or even in the longer term. FIs who are sitting on the fence are potentially going to lose regulatory advantage, compared to those who started adopting Regtech earlier. The best recommendation from Chye Kit is that it’s time to do something to secure your regulatory future if you don’t want to fall behind and lose competitiveness.
About Cynopsis Solutions
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Singapore, Cynopsis Solutions offers RegTech solutions designed to digitise and automate Compliance and regulatory processes, in particular know-your-customer, anti-money laundering, and counter-terrorism financing. Cynopsis Solutions’ accolades include MAS FinTech Awards (2018), RegTech100 (2018, 2019) and Financial Times Top 50 High Growth Companies in Asia-Pacific.
Our end-to-end KYC/AML solutions are designed according to the global FATF recommendations, applicable to more than 180 jurisdictions and is already helping more than a thousand B2B customers in the Banking, Financial Services, FinTech and Cryptocurrency, Professional Services and Gaming sectors globally.
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