CEO of Red Marker on how regulatory technology can slash the cost and paperwork involved in compliance
CEO of Red Marker on how regulatory technology can slash the cost and paperwork involved in compliance
There is enormous buzz surrounding regulatory technology, commonly known as RegTech, and its ability to make risk and compliance more exciting and positive.
It is experiencing rapid growth in response to financial services organisations needing to find better and more cost-effective solutions to support their risk and compliance frameworks. In Australia, there has been rapid adoption of RegTech encouraged by the regulators themselves. In his address to the ASIC Annual Forum earlier this year, chairman Greg Medcraft said RegTech would change the nature and culture of financial services and institutions.
He even earmarked Red Marker as showing the path forward for the future of RegTech offerings that “not only detect misconduct, but they also educate when they detect possible issues”.
Why it is relevant
RegTech is front of mind for the regulator and the industry because it helps organisations build a true culture of compliance. Not only does it arm people in the field with tools to make better decisions, it creates efficiencies and product improvements to manage regulatory obligations in a cost-effective and compliant manner. In perhaps the most exciting development of all, Kaplan Professional and Red Marker believe it will play a significant role in the future of professional education because it enables organisations to identify when and how to train their staff.
Filling in paperwork and managing back-office processes are not what most mortgage brokers enjoy about their role. It is also one of the areas where compliance risks can emerge. RegTech can both automate much of the application process, but also verify key customer inputs to ensure the broker’s obligations are being met. This offers the chance to reduce cost and increase the productivity of broker businesses, and perhaps most importantly, significantly improve the customer experience.
Innovating the space
Kaplan Professional and Red Marker have been working together for the past four years on our real-time compliance solution, Artemis, and both share a vision for the future of learning being artificial intelligence-enabled. This has resulted in a focus on collaborating with our clients to connect real-time risk identification with professional education. We are building education pieces into the Artemis engine – bite-sized chunks of micro-learning – so users are able to detect when they have made a mistake, self-correct and learn as they go. It is a learner-driven process enabling continuing education to be delivered when and where it is needed, integrated into one’s daily role.
The future
There is genuine capability out there right now and it is an enormous opportunity for organisations, brokers and the industry to innovate in the way they do things. I would encourage you to get on board with RegTech as soon as possible because not only are you empowered to maintain visibility and control across your organisation, it helps you identify learning opportunities for your people, to train them in all areas to reduce risk and improve customer outcomes.
Matt Symons is the CEO of Red Marker, who he recently co-founded and sold to Kaplan where he now works with the rest of the Red Marker team developing automated compliance and real-time training platforms.
He has managed multiple successful ‘exits’ to corporate acquirers including Telstra and Accenture, and co-founded SocietyOne and GetCredit Score. Matt is the director of the RegTech Association, sits on the Treasurer’s FinTech Advisory Group and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Australian Digital Currency Commerce Association.
