The use of disruptive regulatory technology (regtech) to reduce compliance costs for financial institutions by as much as 50%, will be one of a number of subjects discussed at a special event held later this month in Dubai.
The World Arana Group in partnership with Deloitte will host RegTech MENA – a regulatory technology summit in the Middle East on 16 and 17 May in Dubai.
Speakers at the event, including Moodys, the Bank of England, Deloitte and numerous technology experts will highlight that through the use of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, block chain and big data, regtech, part of an expanding segment from the broader fintech universe, is set to reduce growing compliance costs.
“The rising global interest to apply disruptive technologies in compliance comes at a time when profit margins of financial institutions are under pressure due to soaring costs and regulatory fines,” said Ben Morgan, chief executive at The World Arana Group. “We are delighted that we managed to secure an impressive speaker line up of regulators, financial institutions and industry leaders such as BearingPoint and DarkMatter.”
Biggest challenges
According to the event organisers, regulatory compliance is one of the biggest challenges faced by the global financial services industry today as tighter controls and and increased legislation, such as the upcoming Basel III and IFRS 9, means that more agile technology is needed to ensure that costs do not spin to of control.
The alternative would be hiring more compliance staff and growing overheads and a need for innovation in compliance helps organisations to comply more efficiently and effectively with regulations related to customer on-boarding, cyber security, fraud detection, financial crime, regulatory reporting, risk data aggregation and transaction monitoring.
With contributions from Dubai Financial Services Authority, Abu Dhabi Global Market, Al Fardan Exchange, HSBC, Emirates NBD and Emirates Islamic, combined with international best practices from Bank of England and Citi UK, the forum will discuss the practical applications, opportunities, technologies, and cost saving methods of implementing innovative technologies into compliance departments.
Bhavin Shah, partner, Financial Advisory, Deloitte, Middle East, said: “We are pleased to be the strategy partner at the first regtech conference in the Middle East. The exciting developments in this ecosystem mark a clear shift to turn regulations into revenue as the concept is spreading to the rest of the world and is increasingly being embraced by regulators and financial institutions as a way to manage regulatory compliance while reducing costs.”
