Regulation Asia Awards for Excellence 2018 � Results Announcement

SINGAPORE/HONG
KONG, CHINA�- Media OutReach - 21 November 2018 – Regulation Asia held its first ever Awards
ceremony on Tuesday (13 November) at Zafferano’s, overlooking Singapore’s
extraordinary skyline.

 

The ‘Regulation Asia Awards for Excellence’ programme aims to
annually recognise technology companies, legal and consulting firms, and
exchanges that have helped shape the regulatory landscape in Asia Pacific over
the past year.

 

“Adapting to the vast number of regulations has been an ongoing
challenge for financial services in Asia. Technology has been the driving force
behind ensuring these requirements are met,” said Regulation Asia co-founder
Nick Wakefield.

 

“These awards recognise the significant work done by leading
firms in this area, and the quality and number of submissions made this year is
a testament to the strength of the industry as a whole.”

 

More than 90 representatives from over 30 firms attended the
ceremony. It was an opportunity for many of the firms attending to also bring
along the clients for whom some of their projects were implemented.

METHODOLOGY

 

Firms were asked for written submissions to showcase client
wins, new technologies and specific projects and solutions designed to meet
changing regulatory requirements.

 

The Regulation Asia editorial team was charged with assessing
over 60 submissions received to identify those with the most merit in each
category. The team conducted interviews with the shortlisted firms and some of
their clients in order to obtain a more detailed picture of the strengths and
weaknesses of each firm or project and enable a clear comparison between the
entrants.

 

An external panel of jurors comprising subject-matter experts
was tasked with making final judgments on the shortlisted firms in each
category, based on the submissions, interview data and other supporting
materials collected by the editorial team. In some cases, differing views
resulted in a voting process to determine the category winners.

 

In the interest of independence in their evaluations, each juror
made their judgments independently, and only in the categories where conflicts
would not exist.

ONES TO WATCH

 

This category recognises firms for pioneering innovative
technologies to solve some of the industry’s biggest regulatory challenges, but
are either in an early stage of industry adoption or have a relatively new
product or solution.

 

Data Privacy

 

Exate Technology was recognised for a potentially revolutionary
solution to protect data on an attribute-by-attribute basis. The firm provides
a plug-and-play toolbox solution which enables an automated permissions check
on individual data attributes as data enters any web-based application. Read more here.

 

KYC Shared Ledger

 

KPMG was recognised for delivering a proof-of-concept shared
ledger, developed in collaboration with three banks and Bluzelle, which
leverages blockchain technology to facilitate the sharing of digitised KYC
information across banks and significantly reduce onboarding times. Read more here.

 

Collateral Optimisation

 

ACUO was recognised for building a cost effective and fully
automated collateral management platform for the derivatives complex, which the
judges saw as both innovative and potentially disruptive.

OUTSTANDING PROJECTS

 

This category recognises implementations around specific
regulations or regulatory requirements, recognising projects that delivered a
high value in meeting a regulatory need or requirement on time, on value and on
budget.

 

Post-Trade Processing

 

SmartStream was awarded for achieving a best practice standard
for processes around the complete corporate actions management lifecycle, and
in particular, the implementation of this standard at a leading Japanese
securities firm. Read more here.

 

Compliance Automation

 

FIS was awarded for automating the front-to-back commercial loan
origination processes and regulatory compliance for a leading bank in the
Philippines, helping it to improve customer service and enterprise-wide risk
and profitability management.

 

Collaborative Initiative for MAS610/1003 Open Taxonomy

 

AxiomSL was awarded for bringing together leading financial
institutions in Singapore to collaborate on defining a data taxonomy to
simplify and streamline MAS 610/1003 compliance reporting. In the process, the
firm helped participating banks achieve a common industry understanding of the
complex data ask. Read more here.

 

BCBS 239 Implementation

 

PwC was awarded for its work in supporting 6 of the 7 D-SIBs in
Singapore and more than half of the world’s G-SIBs in meeting the requirements
of the BCBS 239 principles for effective risk data aggregation and risk
reporting. Read more here.

REGTECH AWARDS

 

This category recognises firms that are playing a leading role
in developing emerging technologies to meet regulatory requirements,
specifically crediting those that are providing real working use cases of their
technology.

 

AI & Machine Learning

 

Silent Eight was the ‘Winner’ for helping banks optimise
customer name screening, transaction monitoring and payment screening
processes, which have traditionally been manual and time-consuming. The firm
uses machine learning algorithms to screen client entities against sanctions
lists, criminal records, court cases and other public and private data. Read more here.

 

encompass was ‘Highly Commended’ for helping firms gain
efficiency and certainty in their KYC processes, having developed an innovative
solution that uses advanced intelligent process automation (IPA) and artificial
intelligence (AI) to gather and analyse data from over 100 data sources to
build comprehensive KYC profiles for onboarding, event-driven refresh and
remediation. Read more here.

 

Anti-Money Laundering

 

Datarama was the ‘Winner’ for its technology-enabled interactive
mapping and cross-checking tool, which gathers data from specialised media,
deep web sources and official records to visualise key relationships, unearth
obscure information and highlight hidden associations, thereby helping firms to
fast-track KYC, due diligence and deal identification.

 

Big Data & Analytics

 

SWIFT was the ‘Winner’ for a compliance analytics tool that
enables financial institutions to analyse all of their payments traffic and
obtain a complete global view of branch and correspondent banking activity
across all group entities, so they can better understand where to focus their
investigations. Read more here.

 

Cloud Innovation

 

Amazon Web Services was the ‘Winner’ for providing reliable and
robust cloud infrastructure with comprehensive controls to help financial
institutions meet ever-growing requirements relating to operational risk, cyber
security and data privacy, among other technology related risks.

BEST SOLUTIONS

 

This category recognises solutions that are designed with
specific regulatory requirements in mind, assessed on multiple criteria,
including the ease and speed of implementation, flexibility, robustness,
scalability, transparency, technical support, cost and return on investment for
end clients.

 

Regulatory Reporting

 

Wolters Kluwer was the ‘Winner’ for a solution used by some of
the largest banks in Asia Pacific to meet their regulatory reporting
obligations. Key differentiators were the solution’s regulatory update service,
its newly launched business analytics solution suite, and the firm’s
community-building client engagement activities. Read more here.

 

Moody’s Analytics was ‘Highly Commended’ for the
comprehensiveness of its regulatory reporting solution, enabling banks to
manage global regulatory reporting obligations from within a single platform
while also automating the collection, processing, data validation and
submission of reports to regulators in more than 50 countries. Read more here.

 

Trade Reporting

 

DTCC was the ‘Winner’ for its global trade repository business,
which has become a critical tool for regulators in managing systemic risk. The
firm launched a re-architected platform in Australia and Singapore this year,
bringing improved usability, reduced complexity and increased transparency to
users, and was also instrumental in helping reporting entities in Singapore
prepare for the latest phase of MAS reporting requirements. Read more here.

 

Tax Reporting

 

BearingPoint was the ‘Winner’ for its standardised and
ready-to-use tax reporting software, which is in use at some of the biggest
banks in Asia Pacific, enabling them to report to tax authorities across the
world, including for FATCA and CRS, from a single centralised platform. Read more here.

 

Customer Onboarding

 

Appway was the ‘Winner’ for offering an end-to-end onboarding
platform with automation capabilities that serve to increase front and back
office efficiency and effectiveness for over 420,000 users worldwide, at some
of the largest global and local financial institutions. Read more here.

 

Veridate was ‘Highly Commended’ for its a fully integrated
end-to-end client onboarding solution with an automated workflow engine and
plug-and-play features that reduce onboarding times to just 28 minutes. The
firm’s current clients include wealth managers, investment banks, corporations
and cryptocurrency exchanges.

 

KYC Utility

 

The SWIFT KYC Registry was the ‘Winner’ for providing a global
standard for correspondent bank data and documentation, validated independently
and housed securely in a utility that lists over 5,000 financial institutions
in 220 countries as participating entities. Read more here.

 

KYC Data Management

 

Bloomberg Entity Exchange was the ‘Winner’ for its web-based
platform that offers a new way to manage and streamline the exchange of data
and documents required for KYC purposes with strong pick-up across banks, asset
managers and hedge funds across Asia Pacific. Read more here.

 

Risk Data Management

 

Moody’s Analytics was the ‘Winner’ for its RiskFoundation
solution, which consolidates risk and finance data from different systems into
a single, common system of record, conducting extensive data quality checks in
the process and facilitating operational efficiency, enhanced reporting
capabilities and risk analysis. Read more here.

 

Regulatory Intelligence

 

SIX was the ‘Winner’ for providing a service for global
monitoring of sanctioned securities which automates the complex process of
matching individuals, companies and beneficial owners against regulators’
sanctions lists, and adding them to a do-not-trade list that is distributed
daily and minimises the risk of reputational damage and large fines. Read more here.

 

Regulatory Change Management

 

Actico was the ‘Winner’ for an integrated software platform that
automates complex decision processes for regulatory compliance by linking cloud
and machine learning with rule technology. The platform is in use at fintechs,
banks, leasing companies, insurance companies and financial service providers
in over 30 countries.

 

KPMG was ‘Highly Commended’ for its work in Taiwan to develop
GRC solutions to help banks with new rules that require them to implement
firm-wide risk management systems which must be able to monitor regulatory
changes and directly link these changes to the related controls and processes
required for compliance. Read more here.

 

Trade Surveillance

 

Nasdaq was the ‘Winner’ for its SMARTS solutions which provide
surveillance coverage across all asset classes and sources complete order,
execution, market and news data, including private trading data, directly from
exchanges via customised exchange feeds and drop copy connections, setting the
industry benchmark for real-time, cross-market and cross-asset surveillance.

 

Anti-Money Laundering

 

Refinitiv was the ‘Winner’ for its World-Check One platform,
which utilises intelligent search and machine learning algorithms to reduce
false positives and improve content navigation, leading to better decision
making and risk management, and helping compliance teams pinpoint media content
most relevant to regulatory requirements. Read more here.

 

LexisNexis Risk Solutions was ‘Highly Commended’ for its fully
integrated compliance platform that enables organisations to consolidate
compliance processes, standardise controls and bring enterprise-wide
operational consistency. It employs an innovative fuzzy-logic matching
algorithm to achieve a significant reduction in false- positives.

INDUSTRY AWARDS

 

This category recognises firms that are integral to financial
services at the industry level, providing services to financial institutions,
technology firms, regulators, market participants and a range of other
stakeholders.

 

Exchange of the Year

 

SGX was the ‘Winner’ for demonstrating its focus on ensuring a
fair, orderly and transparent marketplace, in recognition that protecting
investors and fostering trust in the exchange and the companies listed on it
are part of its role. The establishment of SGX RegCo represents a commitment to
pursuing meaningful regulation, encouraging good behaviour and governance, and
deterring misconduct.

 

Law Firm of the Year

 

Herbert Smith Freehills was the ‘Winner’ for its work across
Asia Pacific in key focus areas for regulators, such as its role in advising on
5 of the 8 ongoing SFC investigations into IPO sponsor misconduct and advising
financial institutions on AML investigations in the leadup to Hong Kong’s
upcoming FATF assessment. The firm’s engagement with regulators and
associations such as ASIFMA also stood out among judges. Read more here.

 

Clifford Chance was ‘Highly Commended’ for its work on economic
sanctions and trade controls. It is the only international law firm with a
fully staffed team of US-qualified economic sanctions experts based in Asia,
allowing it to advise Asian clients on compliance with US sanctions laws and
regulations in the context of cross-border business.

 

Consulting Firm of the Year

 

KPMG was the ‘Winner’ for demonstrating strong domain expertise
and its ability to understand the views of regulators as well as the entities
they regulate, a position strengthened by its diverse team of consultants that
includes compliance specialists, technology experts and former regulators. The
firm was able to demonstrate its strengths across the Asia Pacific region in a
wide range of regulatory themes. Read more here.

 

PwC was ‘Highly Commended’ for their work in the AML/KYC space,
helping major banks with remediation and implementing preventative measures.
The firm also has demonstrated domain expertise in the areas of BCBS 239, IFRS
9, data ownership, and change management, among others, bolstered by a strong
team and collaborative culture. Read more here.

SPECIAL THANKS

 

Regulation Asia would like to offer our sincerest thanks to our
jurors for their hard work throughout the judging process. The judges
included Philip Keller, Guan Seng Khoo, Jean-Remi Lopez, Derek McGibney, Lapman
Lee, Matthieu Sachot and others who preferred anonymity.

 

In recognition of the considerable effort that was put in from
across the industry to participate in the Awards programme, we would also like
to thank all the teams from firms who entered the awards.

Regulation Asia is honoured to have played a part in developing
this platform as a way to meaningfully recognise the work the industry does
each year to keep up with rapidly changing regulatory requirements.

 

About the Regulation Asia Awards for
Excellence 2018

 

The inaugural
Regulation Asia Awards for Excellence recognises technology companies, legal
and consulting firms, and exchanges that have shaped the regulatory landscape
in Asia Pacific, as well as outstanding technology projects both in mature and
emerging markets by large tech firms and innovative startups that help meet the
requirements of a specific regulatory change infrastructure.

 

For a full list of award
winners, visit www.regulationasia.com/awards.

 

About Regulation Asia

 

Regulation Asia is the
leading source for actionable regulatory intelligence for Asia Pacific markets.
Since 2013, our audience and subscription base have grown to include regulatory
bodies, exchanges, banks, asset managers and service providers, allowing us to
play a key role in the regulatory agenda.

 

Visit www.regulationasia.com
or connect via LinkedIn or
Twitter.