RegTech NZ – What caught our eye this month

April already, a fool, a new moon and an eclipse! This smorgasbord of a month is bringing in all the good vibes encouraging for all you RegTech innovators, movers and shakers. Manifest that change. Carpe diem.

RegTech snapshots – Janet Chenery

From Europe, our friends in the North, aka Koen Vanderhoydonk, The Connector, brought this article to our attention this week: Harmoney, a Belgian solver for complex onboarding and compliance processes, have shared insights into the three main RegTech issues faced by their clients, have a read, see if they strike a chord with you.

Published on 1 April, I double checked news from Singapore, it was interesting to see MAS enhancing its Financial Markets Act and enabling Financial Institutions to share data to combat crime via their centralised digital platform, COSMIC. I love a good collaboration, I think there will be a few people watching this one with me.

A little closer to home, our own Dougal Watt shares insights from his visit to the February 2024 IFRS Sustainability Symposium in New York. We can’t all travel to these events so getting informative write ups like this keep us connected and informed. Don’t be afraid to put your thoughts to print in future so that we all grow together. Whilst on that site, check out the Climate Tracker tool.  If you’re nearing the end of your CDR reporting phase and wondering how this will be sustainable (no pun intended), check them out, if you’re not yet reporting but  want the opportunity to be compliant by design, get onboard quickly. Give Dougal a call.

RegTech collaborators and innovators – Tina Groark

Recently, there has been quite a flurry of activity in the area of open banking in New Zealand, and more changes are afoot. In case you don’t know, open banking refers to a system where customers can authorise third party service providers to make payments directly from their bank accounts or directly access their financial information, like transactions, balances and statements. 

Open banking is being enabled via the Payments NZ API Centre here in NZ, which includes – amongst other things – defining a set of Application Programming Interface (API) standards. These API standards define the rules for how computer systems will securely interact with each other to make API-based payments or share financial information. 

Of primary note is the fast approaching 30 May deadline, when the four major banks (ASB, ANZ, BNZ and Westpac) are due to enable API-based payments. 

Secondly, last month the Commerce Commission published a consultation paper on regulating the Interbank Payment Network (IPN) under the Retail Payments System Act on the basis that regulation would ensure faster delivery of an API-based payments ecosystem that enables more competition and better innovation. 

In addition, the Commision is also considering Payment NZ’s application for authorisation to develop some common terms and conditions for participants in the Open Banking ecosystem, which could otherwise breach the Commerce Act 1986. The outcome of this request is unclear, nor is it clear how this relates to the Commission’s consultation about the IPN. 

And, finally, the Consumer and Product Data (CPD) Bill is being developed that would establish a Consumer Data Right regime in New Zealand and regulate even more aspects of open banking here in New Zealand. The Hon Andrew Bayly publicly stated he intends to seek Cabinet approval to introduce the CPD bill in the first half of this year. 

While it’s not at all clear yet what these regulatory (or regulatory adjacent) activities might mean for those of us in the RegTech space, we’ll be keeping a watchful eye and provide regular updates. 

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RegTech solution implementation – Vincent McCartney

Are you struggling with getting into the right mindset to implement a RegTech solution? Maybe it is related to the innovation culture, or lack of it, within your business.

This week we came across Emplify, a new platform that challenges the way we think about the relationship between innovation success and culture. Emplify sees culture as the ace up our sleeves (More on this here) that sets us up for innovation success. The platform utilises Behavioural Science principles and AI to analyse your organisation’s cultural strengths and work-ons to deliver real-time, in-depth insights and a pathway to progress.

Emplify’s Innovation Culture Model has Empathy as the cornerstone, but also encompasses four additional characteristics that are foundational to a thriving innovation culture: Synergy, Focus, Motivation and Magic. 

Understanding where your organisation’s culture sits on these five characteristics will help you start the journey of continuous development, strengthen the foundation of your innovation culture, and set you up for sustained innovation success.

Emplify Starter is currently in public beta and can be experienced for free (Empathy only) or, for a low early bird price, you can assess all five characteristics with Emplify 360. Soon to be added is a continuous development programme that nurtures simple habits to help your organisation become incrementally stronger over time.

RegTech collaborators and innovators – Prue Tyler

Shift’s resident article writer Sam Williamson, put his thoughts to paper with this article following the publication of  the Commerce Commission preliminary findings on factors affecting competition in the personal banking sector – Personal banking services market study – Draft report. It includes very interesting insights into the impediments to RegTech innovation that we also see. What touched a nerve with you? Please let us know your thoughts.

If you want to know more about what we are doing, and get involved, please connect with us at RegTech NZ or follow our LinkedIn page RegTech NZ.

Janet Chenery

Chair

RegTechNZ