CEO
More and more asset managers are turning to agile specialist technology firms that are capable of maintaining great software solutions. That means the question ‘what makes dependable regulatory risk reporting technology?’ is ever more significant as firms demand more from their providers.
Maintaining great software solutions, especially as a SaaS provider, isn’t easy of course, particularly in a field that’s constantly in flux like financial services regulation. As AQMetrics has seen all too often, firms can ill-afford to rely on vendors that aren’t evolving to meet customer needs.That means firms must be careful when choosing a technology vendor. So, how can you make sure that you’re getting the most out of your provider?
Static Solutions
There’s certainly no shortage of regulatory risk reporting change afoot – and no dearth of vendors to assist you with it either. In speaking to many of our customers, we’ve found many regulatory reporting vendors don’t look to strive for data perfection or to evolve to support their customer’s emerging regulatory needs, which are always changing.‘We’ve heard that many incumbents are unresponsive to support queries particularly when the query concerns treatment of data,’ said Cathal Connolly, AQMetrics’ Head of Global Regulatory Reporting.‘Legacy software isn’t intuitive or is difficult to use, and automation isn’t fully utilised. Other times, applications, such as PF, CPO, AIFMD or 13Fs aren’t being maintained in line with advanced customer knowledge and regulatory changes, or data loaders are outdated, which requires tiresome duplication of work.’This isn’t entirely surprising: with so much consolidation in the RegTech industry, many firms are no longer prioritising the development of their regulatory risk reporting software, as they concentrate on business integration challenges.‘There is a real sense that some vendor firms and indeed in-house technology teams alike are no longer prioritising maintenance of their regulatory reporting solutions,’ Connolly added. ‘This is a real issue for the risk and compliance teams of large financial institutions and asset management houses.’
A Better Way Forward
With firms demanding more from their vendors, many are turning away from in-house and tactical solutions for their regulatory reporting needs.‘Regulatory and compliance heads want to know that they’re working with real experts in the field, that regulatory risk reporting is in the DNA of the provider and that the third party provider is the best strategic option for their firm,’ remarked Geraldine Gibson-Dautun, AQMetrics’ CEO.In a specialist regulatory technology firm, teams of developers mean that reporting software is always up to date and easy-to-use, making it easier for compliance teams to automate their reporting as much as possible.And dedicated customer success teams, including highly experienced regulatory risk reporting specialists, are on hand to answer any of your queries. But there are other benefits as well.‘As more market participants look to solution providers such as AQMetrics for multi-jurisdictional regulatory reporting, we plan on adding application programming interfaces (APIs) to all global regulators,’ Gibson-Dautunadded. ‘We currently send reports from our platform to the SEC, CFTC, FCA and have APIs to regulators across nearly all European jurisdictions including but not limited to the AMF, AFM, CBI and CSSF. We also have plans to add additional APIs to the CNMV in Spain and Cysec in Cyprus in H1 2021.’In addition to APIs into all global regulators, AQMetrics is planning for more regulatory change coming down the line – and is updating its product funnel accordingly. CPO PQR revisions are due by the end of H1 2021, for instance, and AQMetrics will be developing and testing those SEC mandated changes through early 2021.Meanwhile, Brexit will see immediate changes to FCA data processing for MiFIDII and significant changes will be required in regard to how UCITS funds process data pertaining to UK entities.‘The continued onslaught of new and changing regulations means that regulatory risk reporting is here to stay,’ Gibson-Dautun explained. ‘For AQMetrics this is a marathon not a sprint.’