Key Themes From The RegTech Capital Markets Conference

By Steve Toland

Last Tuesday I attended the RegTech Capital Markets Conference in London, sponsored by JWG.

The aim of the conference was to explore the main issues surrounding RegTech and available technology solutions. Right up my street.

Nick Cook, Head of Data and Information Operations at the FCA gave the Keynote. Amongst other things, Nick stressed the importance of RegTech to the Regulators, with the FCA keen to support technical innovation that helps banks to comply. He also discussed the role to be played by members of the regulatory community, to raise the profile of RegTech and help to foster RegTech development - similar to the buzz surrounding FinTech and how that led to increased investment and the delivery of new innovative products.

Nick also clarified the impact of Brexit on MiFID II. He was very clear in telling the audience that nothing has changed - MiFID II will come into force on January 3, 2018.

There was also a very interesting panel, which focused on the need to, and how to, change the ecosystem. The panel included Joanne Hannaford (MD Technology, Goldman Sachs), Matthew Hampson (CTO, Nomura) and Kevin Barry (Head of IT, Henderson Global Investors). The panel addressed a number of points, but the highlights (for me) were:

- Banks need to collaborate - attempting to do this alone will increase costs and slow development

- Consider an Opensource approach - sharing information, but panel accepted that that this is not a natural approach for banks.

The themes for the day were collaboration, open source and building utility models.

The bottom line - for RegTech to grow the whole market needs to take responsibility, breaking down barriers and giving innovative technology a chance.

Many thanks to JWG for organising a very interesting conference