RegTech Conferences in 2019: What we learned
First half of 2019 went by in a flash. Being named Early Stage Startup of the Year, expanding into the UK and creating innovative product partnerships, we have certainly kept busy.
Through these important milestones, we have been frequent attendees and speakers at some of the most visited and talked about international FinTech and RegTech conferences. We find these events invaluable sources of insight and understanding for us to keep delivering compliance innovation to the financial services industry.
Inspired by peers, practitioners and though leaders alike, we look back at the learnings from the key talking points, freshest thinkers and most capturing speeches this year.
Here is our rundown of RegTech conferences visited so far:
Paris FinTech Forum
We kicked off 2019 with Paris FinTech Forum.
With over 2,600 attendees, 250 CEO speakers and 160 FinTechs on stage, it was a fantastic opportunity to soak up knowledge and inspiration from some of the most trusted voices in the industry. Speakers and delegates ranged from organisations such as Deutsche Handelsbank, The Bank of Lithuania, ebankIT, MangoPay, Salt Edge, Bankingblocks, SlimPay and Natixis Payments.
As for Apiax, Co-Founder Nicolas Blanchard shared thoughts and expertise on RegTech and cross-border activities in pitch session Compliant across borders — Empowering banking in complex cross-border regulatory landscapes.
Focussing on key industry topics such as emerging opportunities and risks, the need for regulatory standards and financial inclusion, some of they key-take away points from the event include:
- Digitalisation of customer services and its immediate needs
- Plataformification of financial services in a Banking as a Service (BaaS)era
- Data management and security, incl. definitions for financial institutions
- Booming FinTech solutions for SMEs
- Decentralisation from big tech companies through Blockchain technology and Open Data
- Digital transformation of the financial services as an accelerator of inclusion globally
ALFI European Asset Management Conference
Back in March, we attended ALFI European Asset Management Conference at Luxexpo The Box, Luxembourg.
This year’s theme was The 4 P’s of Asset Management: Product — People — Progress — Prediction. Speakers and panels covered topics such as key business drivers, strategic issues, product development and innovation in operations and asset allocation.
We were delighted to have Apiax Head of Business Development Andrew Campbell featured in the lunch session Innovation in Asset Management: 5 FinTechs to discover to walk through case studies and best practices of digital compliance and our RegTech tools.
Here are our key take-aways from the event:
- Digital transformation will aid emerging generations with investment in funds. This innovation is not structural as much as competitive.
- There is a push from investors towards Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing.
- Achieving sustainability can not be done by trying to predict the future, but by proactively creating it.
- AI and FinTech should not be used to replace humans, but rather to take the robot out of the human by moving repetitive tasks to the digital worker.
Geneva WealthTech Forum
We finished off Q1 with a visit to Geneva WealthTech Forum.
The event gathered all stakeholders of wealth management and top digital innovators — including banks, asset managers, family offices, investors, VCs, incubators, mentors and startups — all with a mission to better understand digital transformation and development of WealthTech start-ups and incubators, including their trends and opportunities.
The forum was built on three pillars: industry knowledge, start-up expertise and capital. From those, our favourite topics included “Challenges in the wealth management industry in the next 5 years”, “Using Technology to better serve the Client of the Future”, “Leveraging Distributed Ledger Technology for Funds”, “How corporations connect with the speed of change in the financial value chains?” and “The Power of Education in WealthTech”.
Another highlight was the appearance of author and industry expert Chris Skinner — on stage for the first time in Geneva. In his talk Doing Digital: Lessons from the Leaders, the FinTech influencer helped pinpoint and uncover the secret recipe of digital transformation for already established banks.
RBI Digital Banking Conference EU 2019
We kicked off spring with RBI Digital Banking Conference EU in London in April.
With industry thought leaders and practitioners alike coming together, the agenda was set to explore the evolution of commercial banking.
Looking at the triggering factors of change, speakers from Accenture, Barclays, HSBC, Santander, Lloyds Banking Group, Transferwise and SWIFT — to name a few — shared their thoughts and experiences on regulation, competition, customer behaviour and technology within the space.
Open baking was another hot topic this year, both its impact on the sector but also best practices and first-mover challenges.
Temenos Community Forum
In April we joined the almost 2,000 international delegates at Temenos.
The 2019 theme Digital Banking Reloaded celebrated the new era of banking. On this note, the main topics revolved around cloud-native, cloud-agnostic digital technology as an enabler and risk mitigator for banks.
Like the true RegTech enthusiasts we are, Apiax had the opportunity to speak about redefining the wealth model in the speech Smarter compliance, faster decisions and lower costs. In essence, Co-Founder Philip Schoch illustrated how RegTech can be used to drastically reduce cost and the average of 30'000 hours spent on compliance training in financial institutions.
Below you can find a brief summary talk by Alan Blanchard, Country Head UK, outlining the compliance challenges faced by financial institutions and how RegTech can be used as a means to solve regulatory ambiguity.
Global RegTech Summit
Our next stop was Global RegTech Summit 2019 in London in May.
Experts from companies such as HSBC, Credit Suisse, Societe Generale and EY gathered for annual horizon scanning, covering topics such as regulatory change, industry needs, resource allocation and the cost of compliance in organisations.
Apiax was on site to take part in the conversations. Country Head UK Alan Blanchard presented our RegTech tool kit and how complex legal requirements related to cross-border banking can be easily managed by banks, wealth managers, asset managers and other financial institutions.
ICT Spring
Next on our agenda was ICT Spring 2019, which with its staggering +5'000 attendees is considered one of the biggest tech events in Europe.
Among the speakers invited to inspire and teach about digital trends, AI, FinTech and Space were experts from Samsung, ING, BNP Paribas and ArcelorMittal, accompanied by consulting firms PwC, EY and KPMG.
At the dedicated FinTech summit, today’s online landscape was in focus with particular highlights on client interaction, the value of customer data and designing customer experiences.
The Digital and AI summit brought forward current trends as well as its impact on the everyday life and role as enabler and innovator across organisations.
No doubt we left inspired and with an optimistic outlook for the future.
FinTech Europe 2019
In May, we joined financial, startup and legal communities for FinTech Europe 2019 in London to discuss key regulatory questions.
The key discussion points included the progress of open banking, the collaboration between financial institutions and startups, intellectual property rights in the digital era, the value of AI and blockchain and — last but not least — RegTech!
It was a great opportunity to learn from senior professionals from inspiring companies such as Revolut, Transferwise, Monzo, HSBC, ING, Citi and Barclays.
Our key takeaway points were:
- Open finance is the next step across Europe
- IP management is becoming increasingly important for FinTechs
- Customer experience can be improved by Blockchain processes. Trade finance is one area where it already has become quite dominant.
- FinTechs need to find new ways to work with incumbents in order to scale effectively.
- Risk management has become a huge growth area for RegTechs
JWG RegTech Capital Markets
Q2 was finished of with a visit to JWG RegTech Capital Markets in London.
Together with peers from financial institutions, technology firms and global regulators, we met to discuss trends and challenges in a turbulent, ever-changing regulatory space.
The gathering aimed to identify and explore cracks in public and private sector capabilities, disconnects between change programmes and BAU compliance. Speakers from the FCA, BNP Paribas, Santander, BlackRock and Revolut — to name a few — provided us with the latest thinking on how to best manage skyrocketing regulatory noise levels and how leaders are taking RegTech to board level.
Asked to give our view, Apiax Country Head UK Alan Blanchard joined panel RegTech 2020: Getting the boards’ priorities right. Joined by experts from Deutsche Bank, ISDA and State Street Global Markets, the main talking points were:
- The impact of resetting the bar for compliance across the enterprise
- Coping with the pace and volume of change via RegSTP
- Looking ahead at upcoming regulation, where are the big changes, what are the threats and opportunities for new RegTech projects
TSAM — Regulations & Compliance
Our latest participation was at TSAM Regulations & Compliance in London.
Joined by peers and experts in the asset management industry, we kicked off autumn with interesting discussions about compliance issues, such as Senior Managers & Certification Regime (SMCR) and processes around MiFID II, PRIIPs & GDPR implementation.
Technology was also a big topic, including selection, implementation & change management, to ensure compliance functions keep pace with the rest of the business in the digital era.
Together with aosphere (who we recently partnered with for product collaboration!) and Credit Suisse, Apiax contributed with cross-border and RegTech insight in the panel discussion Fund marketing and distribution in the digital age. It was a very interactive session with plenty of input from the audience covering compliance challenges and best practices in asset management.
Referring to our previous list of must-attend RegTech events in 2019, we still have a few promising ones to go before we wrap up the year.
If we have missed any important past or upcoming RegTech conferences, do drop us a line or simply comment hereunder. You can also clap for this article if you liked it.
Finally, subscribe to our newsletter to be sure to not miss a beat.
