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Last week we attended the RegTech Summit Virtual which focused on the evolving risk and compliance landscape, particularly this year and the changes many organisations have been forced to implement.
One of the main points which filtered throughout the week-long event was “good technology, good people, good data.”
Of course, good data was the one thing that stood out to us the most, as we know there is a real need to get corporate data in order first to ensure that RegTech can fully support operational needs.
Our CEO, Simon Cole, spoke at two panel discussions about leveraging technology in today’s complex regulatory environment, as well as how to maintain resilience and manage new and developing risks.
Speaking to attendees, Simon said data risk is greater than ever before:
“Information is being consumed in ways we hadn’t ever imagined and is living in places we hadn’t ever anticipated. Trying to get a handle on that and ensuring organisations are still in control of the data is one of the biggest challenges in the short term.
“Data has gone online, where organisations historically had some reticence in putting some of their key assets. There’s a real need now for the CRO and the CDO to be working closely together to marry the use of data and the risk that that information is bringing.”
Simon Cole said there are two important elements when it comes to regulation technology – Oversight and Control. He remarked that if organisations want to comply with regulations, they need to understand the data that they have:
“Unless you have a handle on the risk that is contained within your information, whether it is structured or unstructured, then you just don’t know what your exposure is. Then it’s also about putting that into practice against the data. And finally, how can you report against that? Where is the evidence of how you are doing that? It about the first, second and third lines of defence working together.”
During one of the panel sessions, Simon was asked about data privacy regulations that have come into play globally in the past few years. He said, “ The reality of privacy is that organisations need to take it seriously. When we’re dealing with people’s personal data, there’s nothing higher. The ability to help an organisation take control of privacy is equal to meeting the FCA regulations as it’s now certainly an issue that is sitting at the boardroom level.”
When asked to summarise his thoughts over the week, Simon said it was important to reflect on not just the more burdensome aspects of regulations: “We help to bring structure to unstructured data. The manner and richness with which we can capture so much data today is fantastic, but how do we identify that richness; how do we really bring insight into that and turn it into something which is meaningful?
“If we can understand the data, we can actually start to ask it questions that are more about what we can add to the business. So, it’s not all about the negative, it’s not all about control.
“Our data is valuable and that’s a key outcome that everyone should look for in this.”
