Editor’s Desk Disrupting the Regulatory Landscape
I
n the age of technology, where everything is interconnected, financial businesses are regulated to save more time and resources as they have to meet the growing customer needs. We have already entered the digital revolution, where businesses have transformed into the digital space and are aligning their offerings as early as possible. The bottom line is to think big and act according to the changing needs of the current situation. With the rise in digital products, the chances of data breaches, cyber hacks, and other fraudulent activities have also increased. After witnessing such a dilemma, businesses have started realizing the importance of Regtech. While the digital market is the future of the Regtech industry, more and more companies are lining up their contracts and business with the Regtech companies. If it was not for the regulation of information technology to enhance regulatory processes, Regtech would not have existed. But since Information Technology is all around us, Regtech is here to minimize the risk of human error by automating the process. Regtech companies have your back in the digital part and the business compliance or to say it is the yin and yang of the industry, completing the circle of compliance. Having a Regtech company by your side means entrepreneurs and innovators can focus on the big things. It has become the strongest force in the world of compliance by becoming the centralized regulatory platform for all the companies. With advanced technologies like artificial intelligence or big data, these companies are capable to deliver more robust verification capabilities claiming the promising part
of the industry. Today, Regtech is not just about technology or compliance, they are like any business, satisfying the client’s needs. All this has led Insights Success to come up with the new edition of The 10 Best Performing RegTech Solution Providers. Featuring as the cover story of this edition is aRMadillo® Group - a Regtech and compliance business specializing in verification data and documents for onboarding and constant client monitoring. It covers and protects regulated businesses for Know Your Customer (KYC), Due Diligence, and Enhanced Due Diligence. It helps stop financial crime and money laundering, and information supplied helps companies prepare and pass regulator inspections which are getting tougher these days. Besides, Armadillo was the first online corporate data and onboarding compliance information system on the web, launching in June 1997. Learn about more such Regtech companies that are disrupting the regulatory landscape by providing technologically advanced solutions to the ever-increasing demands of compliance. Also, while flipping the pages you may come across CXO standpoints by industry experts and insightful articles drafted by our in-house editorial team. Let’s start reading!
Sourabh More
sourabh@insightssuccess.com
ContentS
08 Cover Story
Armadillo A Leading Compliance Solution Provider Since 1997
Article
20 Down and Out Compliance Meeting Regulatory and Compliance Requirements Most Effectively by Using RegTech Platforms
16 deltaconx
unifying regulatory compliance
32 MAP FinTech
Technology at the Heart of Regulation
CXO
28 Leader’s Viewpoint The Role of Data
24 LogSentinel
Improving Cyber Security with Threat Detection and Response
36 Sedicii Making Identity Veri ication More Secure than Ever
Editor-in-Chief Hitesh Dhamani Managing Editor Anish Miller
Executive Editor Sourabh More
Visualizer
Art & Design Director
David King
Asha Bange
Assistant Editors Jenny Fernandes
Associate Designer Shubham Dali
Co-designer Kartik Balapurkar
Senior Sales Manager
Business Development Manager
Kshitij S
Peter Collins
Marketing Manager
Sales Executives
John Matthew
David, Martin, Aditya
Technical Head
Business Development Executives
Jacob Smile
Steve, Joe, Aidan, Binay
Technical Specialist Aditya
Digital Marketing Manager Marry D'Souza
SME-SMO Executive Amol Wadekar
Research Analyst Frank Adams
Database Management Stella Andrew
Circulation Manager Robert Brown
Technology Consultant David Stokes
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E
TH
BEST PERFORMING
REGTECH
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
Company Name
Featured Person
Brief
Aravo Solutions, Inc. aravo.com
Michael Saracini CEO
Aravo Solutions delivers market-leading, cloud-based solutions for managing third party governance, risk, compliance and performance.
Apiax AG apiax.com
Nicolas Blanchard CEO
Apiax is a Swiss RegTech that builds digital solutions to help financial institutions be compliant with complex regulations worldwide.
aRMadillo® Group armadillogroup.com.au
Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Cohen Founder & CEO
Armadillo Group specializes in the import and wholesale of lubrication equipment and hydraulic hose, fittings and components.
deltaconX AG deltaconx.com
Fabian Klar Director Sales and Customer Relations
deltaconX harness technology to make regulatory compliance processes easier, faster and more cost effective by offering Allinclusive packages.
e4 Strategic e4.co.za
Grant Phillips CEO
e4 is a technology company specialising in digitalisation.
Global Fund Watch globalfundwatch.com
Valerie Kaliski, CEO
Founded in 2015, Global Fund Watch interconnects financial actors and offers a stop-solution for KYC and AML requirements.
LogSentinel logsentinel.com
Bozhidar Bozhanov CEO
LogSentinel delivers robust and reliable cybersecurity solutions designed to protect against data breaches and insider attacks, as well as ensure a higher level of compliance with legal standards and regulations.
ΜΑΡ FinTech mapfintech.com
Mark Ellis Business Development Manager
MAP FinTech is a leading and award-winning regulatory technology provider for the financial services industry.
MCO Inc mco. mycomplianceoffice.com
Brian Fahey CEO
MCO provides compliance management software that enables companies around the world to reduce their risk of misconduct.
Sedicii sedicii.com
Rob Leslie Founder & CEO
Sedicii is creating a federated, global identity verification network which enables real-time identity verification by certified, trusted identity providers.
COVER STORY
A LEADING COMPLIANCE SOLUTION PROVIDER SINCE 1997
Emmanuel 'Manny' Cohen Founder & CEO of aRMadillo®
n 2020 $12bn was handed out in fines by regulators, making a total of $48bn for failures in on-boarding of clients for the prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing. This has led to an uptick in identity and data validation; and businesses now need a reliable way to confirm data and document verification more than ever.
I
Armadillo was the first online corporate data and onboarding compliance information system on the web, launching in June 1997. Other firsts include the Armadillo App in 2011 and our digital multi-lingual worldwide document ordering system; launched in February 2019 amongst others.
The aRMadillo® Group is a Regtech and compliance business specializing in verification data and documents for on-boarding and constant client monitoring. It covers and protects regulated businesses for Know Your Customer (KYC), Due Diligence and Enhanced Due Diligence. It helps stop financial crime and money laundering, and information supplied helps companies prepare and pass regulator inspections which are getting tougher these days.
In the early 2000's we mainly bought, re-engineered and sold data to corporate data providers such as Onesource/ Avention (now part of Dun & Bradstreet) which introduced us to the world of RPA (Robotic Process Automation) giving us today, many years of experience in automating data delivery.
In an interview with Insights Success, Emmanuel 'Manny' Cohen, Founder & CEO of aRMadillo® Group shares the necessity of document identification and how the company is disrupting the regulatory landscape by delivering cuttingedge solutions to the ever-increasing demands of compliance within the industry. Below are the highlights of the interview: Give us a brief overview of The aRMadillo® Group, and its journey since inception. Our universe covers 380m companies, 5bn individuals and over 1000 corporate registries in 220 countries; giving a coverage not equalled by any of our competitors.
Innovation and being the first with our technology is in our DNA. Armadillo was awarded a place on the Global Regtech100 list for 2021, in the Global top 45 buyers guide and featured in several banking magazines last year and this year. As well as Instant Online Compliance Data, Armadillo supplies Legal & Compliance advice. We understand the needs of Regulated businesses, having three different regulated firms in our group, including a UK regulated law firm that can also ensure customer confidentiality. Please list the popular services that make your company standout from the competition. Armadillo provides a truly global Know Your Customer (KYC), Due Diligence and Enhanced Due Diligence service
The 10 Best Performing Regtech Solution Providers
all sitting and working through what we call The Armadillo Hub.
developments, especially when it comes Digital Transformation?
Having a UK regulated law firm in the group also means Armadillo can obtain information from offshore jurisdictions and act on behalf of both Financial and Regulated institutions as well High Net Worth Individuals, giving full client confidentiality.
It is estimated that 15% of a regulated business's staff are involved in compliance work. This is a huge amount of financial and time resource and as more and more industries are being brought into the mix, the cost is just rocketing as there truly are not enough people. If a business does not constantly transform as many of their compliance functions as possible into the digital space, they will lose efficiency and money as the costs just eat up the bottom line.
Armadillo's systems and universe include 380million companies and 5billion adult individuals globally. Giving both instant corporate reports and original registry documents, vital in the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing. All processes systems are ISO 9001 ISO 27001 certified and audited, so that institutions can happily also plug Armadillo into their systems; knowing we work to the highest standards. Armadillo is becoming the 'got to' business for all onboarding and KYC as our services also includes global PEPs (Politically Exposed Persons) checks, sanctions, adverse media and passport & ID checks. On top of data supply and onboarding verification, what also keeps us ahead is our expertise in RPA (Robotic Process Automation). A truly high-tech way forward and much needed by the compliance industry. AI systems and block-chain security and verification also adds to the mix. The final comment about what makes us different comes from one of our long-standing clients and one of the top 4 global consultancies. “Armadillo always delivers”. What is your opinion on the necessity for businesses to align their offerings with newer technological
In your opinion, what could be the future of Digital Market Place post the COVID-19 pandemic? And how are you strategizing Armadillo's operations for that future? The Digital Market Place is the future in our industry, with many companies putting themselves out there for contracts and business. It's not just Covid19 that has caused this. It was happening anyway. Of course, being in this industry means that going forward we really do have to play our part in it. The uncertainty around Covid-19 has just raised the knowledge of it and its importance in the minds of the public. How do you unify Corporate Compliance and Data systems with the The aRMadillo® Group's easier, faster, and more cost-effective services? One of our divisions is Corporate Secretarial and Administration for International businesses. We are
therefore regulated and subject to inspections. We found we always did well whilst many of our peers were suffering fines or multiple regulator visits. We realised we were obviously quite good at compliance and decided to change our corporate assistance division into helping businesses with their compliance. People forget that the reason for data collection around Regtech is to help companies pass inspections and avoid prosecution that may lead to massive fines, reputational damage and jail for individuals. We believe that the two strands of compliance are symbiotic. The Regtech is the scalable digital part and the corporate compliance is the backup consultancy. It also uses and works with the data systems and feeds some of its data. You might say it's the Ying and Yang of the industry. It completes the Circle of Compliance. Hence Regtech and Compliance. How do you provide accurate and efficient Translation services with your high-quality professional translation and localisation services? This is interesting as people forget the reasons behind client on-boarding and checking. Many businesses ask for our DD information for on-boarding but also use it for legal and contractual purposes. They also need to understand what they are looking at. So if you are American and receive documents in Hindi or Japanese, its not just about ticking the box that you have them, but the regulator might ask a compliance officer what the document means during an inspection. Having a law firm and a worldwide translation network, means that we can not only provide localised translations from any language to any language, but certify them, legalize or Apostille the translated document. As an established business leader, what would be your advice to the budding entrepreneurs aspiring to venture into Information Services & Regtech Industry? We entrepreneurs and innovators are dreamers. Budding Entrepreneurs should always remember that on their journey they will come across detractors and competition. Competition is normal, its good as it drives the market. Just strive hard for what you want to achieve and do not forget the little things, like administration and finance. You can be the greatest innovator, salesperson, or dealmaker; but if you have not got the business basics right, you won't survive. Information Services and Regtech are not just about tech or
information, they are like any business, they are about satisfying the client's needs. Finally, in my view, it doesn't matter what industry an entrepreneur is in, it's the same fundamental; entrepreneurship is 'Belief in Yourself'. You really do need that confidence that you are doing the right thing, it's what gets you through the tough times. So, believe in yourself and never stop dreaming!! How do you envision on sustaining your company's competency in a cutthroat and volatile world of business? Where do you see your company in the next five years? Keep innovating for the next 5 as we have done for over 20 years, its paramount in this digital age we live in. We are working to be the 'go to' place for Regtech globally and a household name in the world's top regulated businesses. We are working on some smart systems and processes that will truly be ground-breaking and disruptive in the industry in the coming years. Yet much is about watching trends in the market with versatility and flexibility, key. In 2018, the market was changing fast and we re-wrote our marketing material 3 times in the year, based on the fast-changing client needs. We had to adjust our products at the same time. Before I changed the business to concentrate on Regtech I analyzed when we did really well historically and found it was during years where we innovated the most, constantly bringing out new or updated products. So that is what we see ourselves doing. It will never stop. Ensuring Customer Satisfaction “Our Regtech systems are provided either directly to clients via our web platforms, mobile App & API, or indirectly via major channel partners & 3rd parties via our white labelled systems. We work with several of the world's top banks as well as the big, regulated, consulting firms amongst others. As I said before, and we're often told this – Armadillo always delivers. I often say to our major clients, especially if we're doing some RPA with data supply, that once it's all set up “If you don't say Wow! I want to know about it,” says Emmanuel 'Manny' Cohen.
& & 20 The
Most
SUCCESSFUL
BUSINESSWOMEN to Watch, 2020
kimberly Khoury
Paving her Way in Sustainability Development
The 10 Best Performing Regtech Solution Providers
Fabian Klar Director Sales and Customer Relations
16 | May 2021
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deltaconX unifying regulatory compliance
D
uring the last few years there has been a clear trend to use cloud-based solution. The advantages of a centrally managed and maintained private cloudbased reporting platform that can be accessed from everywhere in the world are always existent. deltaconX AG believes that cloud computing and in consequence outsourcing of data centres is the future for most industries. The company is working with two highly secure data centres (Tier 4) in which its data and its customer data is maintained. deltaconX AG offers its solution as private cloud solution since 2013 as it realized these advantages much earlier. The pandemic has even more accelerated the trend to use cloud-based solutions. deltaconX AG’s main sector of activity is the financial industry but also non-financial companies are among its clients. As a Swiss company based in Lucerne, deltaconX AG is a full-service provider offering a unique software and support package specifically tailored to European Financial, Energy, and Commodity trading organisations to cover multiple jurisdictions within a unified regulatory platform. At the helm of the company is its elite leadership team. One of the key members of the company is Fabian Klar, Director Sales & Customer Relations. Strong Position in Financial Sector deltaconX AG’s deltaconX regulatory platform has been launched as a private cloud solution in 2013 to offer a reporting solution under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR). In 2015, the reporting obligation under the Regulation on wholesale Energy Market Integrity and Transparency (REMIT) has kicked in and company included the module to its solution. In 2017, the Financial Market Infrastructure Act (FMIA or FinfraG) in Switzerland came into force and it won 50+ financial institutions in Switzerland. In 2018, the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) entered into force in Europe and it has included transaction as well as trade reporting modules into its
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regulatory platform. In July 2020, the Securities Financing Transaction Regulation (SFTR) reporting obligation came into force. With the introduction of this highly complex regulation into its deltaconX regulatory platform, the company has significantly strengthened its positioning in the financial sector. Clients from Different Sectors Today deltaconX AG reports on behalf of over 200 direct and indirect clients coming from different sectors. It has its Energy and Commodity trading organisations on one hand and on the other hand it has its clients from the financial sector being banks, asset managers, insurance companies or pension funds. Even industrial clients that are active in the capital markets (mainly FX trading) are among its clients. Beside the company’s direct clients, it also has partnerships in place with some of the most prestigious software vendors in the financial industry. It has been white labelling its platform to Finastra and SimCorp and has a connectivity agreement with Murex in place. It plans to further extend such partnerships and are confident that it can announce at least 1-2 new cooperation within 2021. Easing Regulatory Reporting Processes deltaconX AG’s vision is to become the strongest FinTech/RegTech community in unifying regulatory compliance processes by providing its centralized deltaconX regulatory platform. The company intends to ease regulatory reporting processes of its clients as much as possible while reducing the total cost of ownership significantly. Brexit has also been a topic that kept deltaconX AG busy over the last months as depending on the regulation, reports must either be split between both regulations or even double reporting might be necessary for certain transactions and constellations. deltaconX AG has established additional EMIR UK, MiFIR UK and SFTR UK reporting modules that include rules engine defining under which regulation a transaction or even a delegated report needs to be reported.
May 2021 | 17
‘‘
deltaconX supports multiple
regulatory reporting jurisdictions within its unified state of
18 | May 2021
‘‘
the art SaaS platform.
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Fulfilling All Regulatory Reporting Obligations Multi-Regulatory Platform The deltaconX regulatory platform is a state-of-the-art multi-regulatory platform offering various possibilities regarding data management, exception management, reconciliation management as well as a whole sweep of useful functionalities like UTI generation and sharing, an LEI-Repository which is directly connected to the GLEIF database, just to name a few. In its unique platform, all reports and records for supported regulations can be accessed, including the entire history of the reported transactions. Regulatory changes are mainly done by deltaconX on the centrally managed platform. Using deltaconX AG’s service enables IT resources of clients to work on their primary activity. The regulatory platform enables 100% predictable costs due to the Service fee including all regulatory changes. No extra fees for release upgrades. The company wants to extend the regulatory offering by upcoming reporting modules. It intends to extend regulatory reporting by additional reporting channels. There is no need of dependency on reporting channels decision to continue or discontinue the reporting services. deltaconX will take care to find an alternative and to connect to these. Reduced implementation and maintenance cost as only one integration is required. Flexible integration as deltaconX AG’s solution can accept declarations in XML, CSV, Excel and flexible connectivity types: API, SFTP and manual upload. Reducing Operational Costs of Clients deltaconX AG is constantly enhancing the features of its platform and extending the regional coverage. It is not seeing itself as a vendor but more as a service provider and partner that is evolving together with its clients and partners. Being close to the market, understanding the markets needs and delivering a service that is helping its clients to make their life easier and to reduce operational costs is its main focus. Extending Regional Coverage In 2021, deltaconX AG plans to extend its regional coverage by also offering Dodd Frank (CFTC and SEC) reporting in the US, ASIC reporting in Australia, MAS reporting in Singapore, CSA reporting in Canada, HKMA in Hong Kong. In time of five years, deltaconX AG aims to be a global leader in the regulatory reporting space and covering regulations from all over the world and supporting clients from all over the globe. It will cooperate with the majority of the financial front-office system providers and will transform regulatory reporting from a pure cost centre into a differentiator for its clients.
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“For us, working with deltaconX is not just about having a solu on provided by an external vendor. Instead, deltaconX has proven to be more of a partner, suppor ng us with their broad knowledge on regulatory repor ng burdens.”
“We decided to go with the deltaconX SFTR solu on because the respec ve product is very intui ve to use and could be implemented with li le effort as well. The deltaconX regulatory pla orm is highly user-friendly and enables us to easily create SFTR reports in an efficient way and to be 100% compliant all the me. In addi on, there is the prospect of connec ng further regulatory topics such as EMIR all within one interface which makes it more comfortable for the backoffice departments.”
The repor ng start went well for us. We would like to thank the team of deltaconX for the support and can par cularly emphasize the feedback management and the high response speed.
“deltaconX perfectly fulfils the function as a central platform for different regulatory reportings like EMIR, FMIA or MiFIR and convinces with innovative spirit, flexibility and great support.”
deltaconX is a reliable and credible partner that provides a highly flexible solu on for the coverage of dc's regulatory repor ng obliga ons. The robust technical pla orm has definitely helped us to streamline and automate the repor ng processes, which ensure regulatory compliance with both exis ng and upcoming regula on regimes. Great support from deltaconX that is always sensi ve to our specific business needs is highly appreciated.
May 2021 | 19
Down and Out Compliance
Meeting Regulatory and Compliance Requirements Most Effectively by Using
Platforms
R
ules and regulations are essential in any field. Without having certain rules and regulations, everything can be very haphazard. Haphazard systems cannot sustain their existence. Organized systems function well and thrive in the long term. Rules and regulations are generally enforced by governmental agencies. Regulations are essential to know what can be done and what should be avoided in businesses. Complying with these rules and regulations is essential for all businesses to avoid sanctions or fines. Meeting the regulatory and compliance requirements is important for businesses to maintain their reputation. Therefore, having a platform to meet regulatory and compliance requirements is essential for the effective functioning of businesses while saving time and money.
20 | May 2021
RegTech (Regulatory Technology) is not just a word, it is a platform that combines regulations with technology and creates an impact by ensuring regulatory compliance especially for banks and financial institutions. RegTech companies provide solutions in the areas of Compliance, Regulatory Reporting, Identity Management & Control, Transaction Monitoring, and Risk Management. RegTech solutions help companies meet regulatory and compliance requirements while saving money and time. RegTech platform uses big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and SaaS technologies to automate crucial processes and manage regulatory compliance. These platforms use cloud computing through SaaS technology to help businesses in adhering to regulations less expensively and efficiently.
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The use of technologies such as blockchain, big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning provides opportunities for the growth of the RegTech market. The emergence of RegTech into the non-finance institutions offers additional revenue opportunities for RegTech platforms. The platforms that help to unify regulatory compliance processes are always in demand. RegTech is a platform or a group of new technologies, especially designed to enhance and automate the use and effective delivery of financial services. RegTech software platform helps companies to solve the challenges of a technology-driven economy due to cyber hacks, data breaches, and other fraud issues. RegTech platform helps those companies with help of machine learning and big data technologies to minimize risks and ensuring compliance. Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence help in ensuring compliance and regulatory requirements by automating processes such as reporting, data analysis, searching for new regulations, and sharing the impact of changes. The advantages of a centrally managed and maintained private cloud-based reporting platform that can be accessed from everywhere in the world are enormous. The introduction of an efficient RegTech platform helps companies significantly strengthen their position in the financial sector. Such platforms provide a regulatory platform with various possibilities such as data management and reconciliation management. In such unique platforms, all reports and records for supporting regulations can be accessed, including the entire history of the reported transactions anywhere and at any time. RegTech platforms should continuously enhance their features to meet the advanced regulatory and compliance requirements of the institutions or businesses. Such platforms should evolve together with their clients and business institutions. RegTech platform should understand market needs and deliver service according to the needs of the clients. This will make the lives of clients easier by reducing the operational costs and time in meeting regulatory and compliance requirements. This will help RegTech platforms to make their mark in the market.
insider attacks. Such platforms protect the most confidential information. They also help in ensuring a higher level of compliance with legal regulations and standards. RegTech solutions help businesses effectively in identity management and control. They make use of Machine learning and AI to help in collecting necessary information from numerous sources and they help in analyzing the collected data. RegTech solutions can track risk and manage it by identifying situations based on delivered data. This data can be used in the financial sector by RegTech solutions to predict the changes in the market and minimizing the risk. The right RegTech software helps in reporting processes by automating them without the involvement of employees. Because of this, it is possible to get the most correct data due to minimized human errors. Regulatory reporting processes can be optimized by using Artificial Intelligence. Enabling automated distribution of data and regulatory real-time reporting with help of big data analytics can bring significant savings of time and money. RegTech platforms can help to analyze and monitor transactions much faster and more accurately by leveraging blockchain technology and thereby, improving the safety of transactions. Automated software configures and generates reports quickly. RegTech platforms accelerate speed and agility. Advanced analytics help RegTech solutions to represent information in an easily understandable way. The use of integrated technologies by RegTech platforms also helps them in delivering the most advanced solutions to clients. Being innovative in their approach helps RegTech companies to meet the regulatory and compliance requirements of businesses most effectively with savings of time and money. Such platforms reduce the financial risks of clients and promote digitalization. Regulatory Technology streamlines the business processes and transforms businesses by improving customer experience, providing business insights, driving new services and products. Thus, we can say that RegTech solutions are valuable as they standardize regulatory processes and automate compliance processes.
Good RegTech platforms also help by delivering robust cybersecurity solutions for protecting data breaches and
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May 2021 | 21
Bozhidar Bozhanov CEO, LogSentinel
24 | May 2021
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The 10 Best Performing Regtech Solution Providers
Improving Cybersecurity with Threat Detection and Response
I
n the world of digitalization, it is essential to protect the important information from the potential cyber threats. It has become the obvious reality in recent years that one can’t ignore information security, as the risks are too high, and one can’t afford getting breached. LogSentinel delivers robust and reliable cybersecurity solutions to protect data breaches and insider attacks, as well as it ensures a higher level of compliance with legal standards and regulations. LogSentinel is an information security company that was founded several years ago with the vision of improving security for everyone. It was started with protecting the integrity of log collection and grew to offer a full-featured Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution. Bozhidar Bozhanov is CEO at LogSentinel. He is a senior software engineer and solution architect with over 10 years of experience in the software industry. Leveraging the Latest Technologies LogSentinel is passionate about information security and believes in privacy as a human right. Its mission is to help boost IT security processes of organizations by leveraging the latest technologies including blockchain and AI along with industry best practices. LogSentinel SIEM is an easyto-use next-gen SIEM system that helps its customers to reduce the time and cost of incident detection, investigation, and response by over 90%. By leveraging the latest technologies like blockchain and machine learning, it enables security teams to eliminate their blind spots and prevent any security incident in real-time.
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Guaranteeing the Integrity of Data LogSentinel is zealous about what it does, and the products it creates that entirely protect personal, confidential, and sensitive data of the organizations so that organizations can focus on achieving their business goals without worrying about data breach and its security. LogSentinel’s fundamental priority is to keep critical data of organizations safe by using state-of-the-art way to store, monitor, and analyse their business-related events. LogSentinel offers absolute integrity guarantees for the collected data. One can use company’s system to prove to third parties, including courts, auditors and regulators, that the digital evidence that was collected hasn’t been tampered with. This is a strong requirement for many sensitive industries. LogSentinel prides itself with the ease of integration and ease of use. SIEM projects are typically very complex and often have unsatisfactory results due to the complexity of integration – company fixes that with a lot of flexibility on the data collection side. LogSentinel offers a predictable pricing model that scales down to allow mid-market companies and SMEs to fully benefit from SIEM. One-of-a-kind Security Innovation LogSentinel SIEM offers one-of-a-kind security innovation: privacy of logs, audit log integrity, unlimited retention, and full visibility, all at a flat and predictable fee, estimated by the number of active users. It provides a solution that was previously thought to be only fit for large enterprises, to customers that could not have afforded it, and who are left vulnerable because of that. May 2021 | 25
Today, LogSentinel is happy to help small and medium enterprises in their cybersecurity and compliance efforts because the world won’t be more secure if a few large companies buy every security product out there. It will be more secure only if every enterprise has access to the best tools. Log management, behavior analytics, advanced AIdriven threat detection and incident response into a complete security monitoring platform - LogSentinel SIEM offers simplicity, predictability, and innovation like nobody else on the market. Ensuring Endpoint Protection The pandemic drove many companies to remote work setups which complicate security and that making 360degree security monitoring extremely important. Organizations cannot afford to miss any source of securityrelated logs and events and cannot afford to trust that home computers are safe, and this is why segments like endpoint protection and SIEM is becoming more and more relevant. LogSentinel’s zero-setup cloud SIEM and its open-source collector and agent can handle every system and every setup even in complex organizations. Facilitating Digital Transformation Certainly, remote work is here to stay, and the software industry can make great use of it. But COVID-19 is driving digital transformation in many industries, including the public sector. This is great for software outsourcing, as many businesses will require new systems and new
integrations, but is also great for security companies like LogSentinel, as the attack surface is increasing. LogSentinel’s plans are to increase its portfolio of out-ofthe-box supported solutions for security monitoring so that any digital transformation project can benefit from great security monitoring and threat detection. Being Ethical CSR for a startup is different than CSR for a large corporation. First and foremost, LogSentinel believes in ethics – being ethical to partners, competitors, and customers. This changes the environment for the better. Reputable Cloud Services The hard thing about cyber hygiene is finding the time and resources to enforce best practices. LogSentinel prioritizes low hanging fruit in its company, including 2FA and having reputable cloud providers. Scope for Improvement Bozhidar states that lot of improvements can be made in the cybersecurity industry in order to account for a complex business environment. He believes that volatility should be met with flexibility and endurance. If something doesn’t work, he advises to adapt, pivot, overcome. He says that Logsentinal’s direction in coming years would be to fulfil the vision of providing great security tools to organizations of any size.
“LogSentinel is an information security company helping businesses of all sizes to prevent data breaches and simplify compliance.” 26 | May 2021
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Leader’s Viewpoint
The Role of
Data
Emilio Billi Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer
A3CUBE
28 | May 2021
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ur knowledge, from the very beginning, relays on data that are the foundation of what we called experience. We build our experience by collecting data. One example is the medical science where doctors have learned by collecting data (symptoms) and put them in relation with the diseases learning how to find the right cure from the continuous observation of the evolution of these data. Let's think about history; we have learned to know the past of human civilization by collecting data from the most varied sources, putting them in relation to each other to reconstruct what may have happened, to understand how people lived in the most remote times, to understand the relationships and events that have occurred. So why we call out time the big data time and talk about the big data revolution? What is changed? Today, what has changed is the amount of data we have at our disposition, opening a radically new set of opportunities. Unlike 50 years ago, today, we have billions of data of all kinds available. This enormous amount of data is the foundation of an immense value for humanity. The relation hidden in the data represents the keys to understand links between things and situations that generates a new level of knowledge that enables us to find new ways to approach our life. This concept is valid for medicine, architecture, social interactions, and in general for any aspect of our everyday life, including day-by-day activities.
Humans are statistical machines too, making hypotheses that arise from observation, and by predicting situations based on the probability that this will occur without experimenting, thanks to experiences. If we drop an apple from our hand, we know that it will go to the ground; experience tells us that an object left free to move in the space will fall to the ground if there is nothing in the middle. If it will fly, we would be amazed because we expect something different. When we see something new, that we do not know we think statistically. We make speculations based on what we know, we said it could be this, or perhaps that, associating to each hypothesis a percentage of chance. Well, machines do the same thing. It becomes possible to amplify human knowledge and create new scenarios thanks to the data combined with a statistical learning process. We called this process Artificial Intelligence (AI). We can change every aspect of our life using AI and machine learning over data and reaching new level of knowledge bringing new capabilities in every human aspect. We have the possibility of obtaining new information and create new tools that make our life better because AI is not just a virtual assistant like Alexa or Siri; Artificial intelligence is a real revolution that we could compare to the most radical one that humankind has experienced until now.
The main question is how do we extract value from all this data?
Artificial intelligence is a serious matter that comes not from computer science but from advanced mathematics and neurosciences; Math and neurosciences are the engines and inspiration for increasingly complex and fascinating mathematical models, in short words AI is a serious, complex, and fascinating technology.
The real problem is that data are billions of billions of billions; extracting useful information from them is not trivial, other than that, every day the amount of data grows exponentially because of the spread of the adoption of new technologies.
There are various types of artificial intelligence and field of research and development connected to them. Let us start with the most widespread form today the Narrow AI, this is the basic-one, it imitates or tries to imitate human capabilities.
The answer is called Machine learning and Deep-Learning which give life to what we call Artificial Intelligence.
There is a second kind of AI, is called general artificial intelligence (GAI).
Through machine learning, we are going to teach machines how to learn from data. It is a statistical and probability process that relates data to effects, discovering their intrinsic characteristics, and throughout their evolution creates knowledge. The procedure is very similar to how we learn from nature.
GAI wants to replicate capabilities that are quite similar to human ones, including creativity and the ability to design original objects with incredibly advanced characteristics. There are many examples of creative AI in music and engineering today.
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Finally, yet importantly, there is a third kind of AI called "Superintelligence". Superintelligence aims to be superior to human capabilities. While superintelligence is still science fiction, the other two are a reality. Let us forget for a moment the AI and Machine Learning applications that we already know like virtual assistants, self-driving machines, and forecasting prediction, or personalized advertising, and let us think in a wider way. Let us imagine having an AI system that is able to learn, always through data, all the characteristics of an object, and then, it can be able to put all the information in relationship with specific features that we want to have, for example, the object to be extremely light.
Today, we can ask to this AI system to redesign the object to match the goal. More in general, we can ask to the AI to project, and even invent better quality products, that can be produced with less raw material and in a more ecosustainable way. In the same way, we can ask AI to create and project a new generation of energy-efficient buildings, at much lower costs the ordinary ones. AI can design safer and more efficient car chassis; it can design new tools with more ergonomic and original shapes that will make us do more and more extraordinary things easily. AI can also have an eye on eco-sustainability and a benefit for the planet reducing energy consumption and pollution production saving raw materials. We just have to experience this new era of humanity as protagonists led by intelligent and revolutionary use of data, keeping in mind, that it is just the beginning!
About the Author Emilio Billi is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of A3CUBE. With nearly two decades in the IT industry, Emilio has proven knowledge of the high-performance computing and datacenter markets. He has developed and designed numerous server and supercomputing systems, including massively parallel virtualized clusters and hyperscalable storage systems as well as other high-performance interconnection and networking systems. He holds eight patents in computer architecture design and related technologies.
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The 10 Best Performing Regtech Solution Providers
Mark Ellis Business Development Manager
MAP FinTech
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MAP FinTech is a leading and award-winning regulatory technology provider for the financial services industry, specializing in regulatory reporting solutions.
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Technology at the Heart of Regulation
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onsidering the high levels of regulation in the financial services sector, it makes perfect sense for firms to rely on efficient and cost-effective technologies to manage and fulfil the multiple regulatory compliance functions required to run their businesses and remain compliant. With this trend gaining momentum, it’s imperative for firms to embrace RegTech and fully understand how these technologies can impact their business moving forward. It’s not enough to simply react to the compliance requirements imposed by new regulations as they are brought into line; firms must prepare ahead of time to tackle the rules that will be rolled out during the next five years and beyond. Consequently, adopting a solid RegTech framework to effectively comply with all financial regulations could also help boost a firm’s profitability and overall efficiency. MAP FinTech has managed to combine compliance and technology successfully and innovatively. Its technology and compliance teams are closely synchronized. This allows the company to be flexible, efficient, and effective in supporting the new demanding and dynamic requirements of Global RegTech. Mark Ellis is the Senior UK Business Development Manager at MAP FinTech. As regulatory technology continues to evolve, MAP FinTech’s mission remains to provide its clients state-of-the-art scalable solutions, that simplify the way that they meet their regulatory obligations without burdening their operational flexibility. In an interview with Insights Success, Mark Ellis shares the journey and contribution of MAP FinTech in the financial services industry through its innovative solutions.
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Below are the highlights of the interview: Talk to our readers about MAP FinTech, and its journey since inception / List of the popular services that make your company standout from the competition. Founded in 2013, MAP FinTech is a leading and awardwinning UK and EU regulatory technology provider for the financial services industry, specializing in reporting solutions arising from the requirements of a number of complex and challenging international regulations such as EMIR, MiFID II/MiFIR, SFTR, FATCA, DAC6 and CRS. MAP FinTech also provides innovative and comprehensive solutions for Best Execution Monitoring, RTS 27/28 reporting, AML Transaction Monitoring and Screening, Trade Surveillance (Market Abuse), and eKYC (Screening, eIDV, Document Authentication). MAP FinTech, has been one of the First providers in Europe to have reported under European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) with 2 Billion+ transactions successfully reported thus far since February 2014. We currently serve over 180 B2B global clients and have been recognised as having the Best Innovative Technology for Regulatory Compliance for 2021 at the RegTech Insight Awards and the Best RegTech Reporting Solution at the Finance Magnates London Summit in 2019. MAP FinTech was also listed as one of the most innovative companies in the world for 2020 and 2021 by RegTech100. MAP FinTech’s innovative solutions are currently used by LSE listed brokers including some of the biggest CFD brokers in the world.
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How do you bring Regulatory Reporting Services with MAP FinTech’s easier, faster, and more cost-effective solutions? All MAP FinTech’s solutions are delivered under its powerful and award-winning Polaris Platform. The Polaris Platform empowers MAP FinTech with complete control of the entire process, from data sourcing to reporting and monitoring and it delivers unparalleled flexibility to quickly adapt to new and evolving regulations. Additionally, the Polaris Platform enables the required conversions, enhancements, and re-formatting of the gathered data, preparing them for submission. The Polaris Platform automates complex workflow processes enabling to review results and ensure accuracy, along the complete cycle. It also adapts to changes across institutions, geographies, and jurisdictions without systems re-engineering, reducing implementation times. Finally, it offers a flexible foundation from which to achieve compliance and help meet the current and future reporting demands of regulatory authorities. What makes your organization’s Comprehensive and Innovative Solutions a preferred choice for your clients over the competition? MAP FinTech is not just a technology company that develops software to enable you to report. At the core of its offering lies compliance. MAP FinTech provides quality assurance that the reporting obligations are correctly covered in terms of data quality. If the need arises, the firm can also directly support businesses before any national competent authority without needing any external thirdparty advisory or assistance. MAP FinTech can directly and uninterruptedly report to a number of EU national competent authorities. Our products have been repeatedly tested and passed several rigorous reviews by EU regulatory authorities, providing full transparency for both clients and EU national competent authorities. Moreover, the company offers financial institutions the unique facility to comply with a firm’s reporting obligations before the regulatory authorities, carry out audit trails, and conduct their own reconciliations. As mentioned above, all MAP FinTech’s solutions are delivered under a single and powerful platform, the Polaris
Platform. Besides transaction reporting, the Polaris platform combines under a single user interface, unique solutions such as Market Abuse Surveillance, AML Transaction Monitoring, Best Execution Monitoring, RTS reports, CRS/FATCA reporting. This allows MAP FinTech to package its offerings to clients by reducing direct and indirect costs, maintain a single point of contact for support and access to the system and avoid the need of multiple integrations with various vendors, thus saving time and resources. MAP FinTech’s dedicated and experienced support team specialises in regulatory reporting, providing continuous support on what is needed to master transaction reporting requirements. This starts from the onboarding phase and covers the whole process up until the initiation of the live reporting, the handover of the platform to the client, and ongoing day-to-day support. Last but not least, MAP FinTech is a member of MAP S.Platis Group, a leading financial services consultancy group in the region that maintains one of the largest and most experienced teams of financial services compliance experts in the EU. This ensures that clients receive the best compliance support and guidance from industry experts in the EU, but also in the UK via Complyport, a leading London-based compliance advisory firm with more than 20 years of experience. How do you envision on sustaining your company’s competency in a cutthroat and volatile world of business? Where do you see your company in the next five years? We resolve to continue delivering exceptional, innovative, and one-of-a-kind solutions to our clients and partner firms. This includes our best-in-class regulatory reporting technology services and tools that allow those companies working with us to achieve best results. The combined expertise of compliance and technology teams underpins the company’s success in providing targeted solutions to its clients and addressing their reporting needs across a diverse regulatory landscape. Our flexibility to build and support completely customized solutions is what gives us the edge. Agility is the key. Personal care for each customer, commitment and innovation is the customer service model the company uses and will continue to use the years ahead.
https://mapfintech.com/
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The 10 Best Performing Regtech Solution Providers
Sedicii Making Identity Verification More Secure than Ever
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edicii, headquartered in Waterford, Ireland was founded in 2013. It is the sixth start-up founded by serial entrepreneur Rob Leslie, Founder & CEO of the company. Sedicii is creating a global federated privacy ecosystem where governments, financial institutions, national utilities and telco’s will be the foundation for KYC, KYB and AML services in respect of a private individual. At the core of Sedicii’s services is its patented ZKP (zero knowledge proof) protocol. ZKP allows for the verification of personal ID without either party to the verification process having to share the raw data.“Rather than the traditional method of documentation verification, the future is to rely on authoritative data to prove identity – while concurrently protecting the privacy of the individual,” says Rob. Rob asserts “there is nothing that focuses your mind about the importance of privacy like having your personal information and credentials “hacked” online. Working in my previous company, Kyckr, we worked on KYC for companies and entities, and I saw the next natural step as personal privacy and so Sedicii was founded.” In an interview with Insights Success, Rob Leslie shared his view on a variety of reasons why electronic identity verification is critical in modern times, and how Sedicii is embarking on providing “best in class” digital identity.
technologies seamlessly into their existing workflows. We fully acknowledge that the concept of verification without information sharing is hard for people to get their heads around. We expect and – dare I say it – welcome the “Doubting Thomas” sceptic. However, the measurable goals show almost instantaneous benefits in terms of costeffectiveness, real-time validation, enhanced privacy, efficiencies and reliability. How does Sedicii's solution differ from the other companies’ solutions? In the context of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) transaction monitoring processes, using Sedicii’s solutions enables banks to better collaborate where they can jointly compute advanced risk assessment algorithms that consume customer information available in the different banks without actually having to share that information - all enabled by using Sedicii’s patented multi-party computation (MPC) cryptographic protocol. Sedicii’s solution allows financial institutions to securely share the insights they have about clients or transactions, without disclosing the underlying confidential data or information (PII). This enables financial institutions to identify potentially suspicious transactions more clearly and accurately by combining the risk information they have – which enables more effective detection of criminal activity.
Below are the highlights of the interview: As a security solutions provider company, what contribution has the company made in assisting its clients in achieving measurable goals? The Sedicii development team are passionate when it comes to helping our clients through the process of integrating our
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Give an insight about importance of AI in security solutions and how aspects of the solution are changing with the advancement in technology? Sedicii is spending significant time and effort working on the development and refinement of new technologies in the areas of advanced cryptography, biometrics and artificial
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Sedicii adheres to the data minimisation principle and preserves privacy.
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Rob Leslie, Founder & CEO,
Sedicii
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How do you sustain in the current unpredictable markets and hectic competition?
intelligence. These capabilities allow us to deliver more robust verification capabilities which protect privacy and confidentiality without compromising on the need to hold the data that proves someone really is who they claim to be. Give a detailed description of the featured person’s influence over the company and the industry. Rob is a serial entrepreneur and a World Economic Forum (WEF) Technology Pioneer. He has spoken at Davos on cybersecurity, digital identity and other technology issues affecting the world’s economies. Additionally, Rob has spoken at worldwide seminars and conferences such as EU Parliament (ESPAS) Conference, the International Economic Forum of the Americas Conference, Montreal, Canada, the Horasis Global Summits where he is regarded as an industry leader. In addition to addressing these important global communities Rob believes strongly that listening to the experiences of others keeps him up to date with the latest technologies and relevant trends as well as allowing him to meet with other like-minded creative professionals. As a Founder / CEO, Rob is very hands-on and has had a deep involvement in the evolution of Sedicii. “In the early years, I was it!” Rob says. “I researched ZKP for almost two years whilst working at my previous company Kyckr and in 2016 relinquished my role there to concentrate fulltime on Sedicii”. “I sought out investors, did the market research and finally in 2016 we began our growth from one person to today’s group of 16 people”. The company is now multi-locational with finance and operations at our base in Waterford, Ireland, innovation and strategy is based in the U.K. and technology development is based in Belgium and the Canary Islands.
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Sedicii is on a mission and has seen a definite increase in organisations looking to collaborate over the past 12 months. In many respects, Covid-19 has focused minds on the positives and negatives of becoming digital by default. We regularly hear in the media of the huge growth in online activity be it retail, commercial, banking or social. We also hear of the corresponding significant growth and the upsurge in fraud, impersonation, personal and financial theft. Pre-Covid, perhaps we were in denial of the relevance or importance of keeping our private information private? Perhaps the internet problem, described by Andrew Grove former CEO, COO and Chairman of Intel when he said “Privacy is one of the biggest problems in this new electronic age”, will finally be taken seriously. We are sustained by the team’s utter conviction in our products and services and the prediction of former BBVA Head of Open Innovation who stated that “Sedicii is the start-up with the greatest potential to transform the financial sector in the next 10 years!”. What is your vision for Sedicii? And what would be the best roadmap for getting there? By working with other like-minded organisations and building a global federated network Sedicii’s vision is to make the Universal Declaration of Human Rights real such that “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks” while accessing technology at the same time. The roadmap is created through a combination of our investors, employees, stakeholders who believe in our vision and for whom all seek to succeed. Additionally, the roadmap includes our customers, partners and community whose online experiences will become more secure and who will see reputational enhancements, organisation cost effectiveness and operational improvements in efficiencies.
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