FinregE Framework Links Early Regulatory Signals to Policy and Control Changes

FinregE has published a seven-step process for identifying emerging regulatory requirements and preparing operational changes before rules take effect.

The framework, detailed in Regulatory Horizon Scanning: Proactive Compliance in 2026, addresses the “implementation lag” between an early policy signal and the changes required across products, budgets, policies and controls.

FinregE argues that waiting until legislation is enacted can create a “compliance crunch,” forcing firms to implement requirements under tighter deadlines and at higher cost. It identifies artificial intelligence, climate finance and digital assets as areas where policy changes can outpace internal decision-making.

“Waiting for regulations to hit is no longer an option,” says Rohini Gupta, CEO of FinregE. She argues that firms have less scope to adapt products and strategies once a rule becomes law, while implementation costs can increase.

The process moves a potential regulatory change from initial detection through to implementation. Early inputs include draft legislation, committee debates and policy white papers. Firms can assess these “weak signals,” determine their likely business impact and prepare changes before a mandate takes effect.

“The Seven-Step Horizon Scanning Process is a continuous, circular methodology designed to transform raw regulatory ‘noise’ (early signals of change) into structured business action,” Gupta explains.

The guide also examines what FinregE calls the “AI Paradox.” Regulatory information can exceed the capacity of manual monitoring, but machine-led analysis carries the risk of misinterpreting legal or policy developments. FinregE recommends that artificial intelligence support scanning and summarisation while subject-matter experts retain authority over legal interpretation and risk assessment.

According to FinregE, case studies involving global systemic banks indicate that proactive scanning can shorten implementation timelines from months to weeks. The company also associates earlier preparation with lower last-minute consultancy costs and reduced exposure to enforcement penalties.

FinregE places horizon scanning within its wider Regulatory Operating System. The proposed workflow links an early warning to impact assessment, policy updates, control changes and evidence that implementation has been completed.

The guide includes Impact Assessment Worksheets and a Vendor Selection Matrix and is available through the FinregE Insights pages.

Kyckr Revenue Grows 46% as Demand Rises for Live Registry Data

KYB data provider Kyckr has reported 46% revenue growth for the financial year ended June 2026, which it described as its strongest performance in two decades. The company attributes the increase to regulatory pressure in Australia and North America, where firms face growing scrutiny of the data supporting their compliance controls.

Kyckr said regulated firms face growing pressure to show that their KYB processes draw on verified, current company information rather than static third-party data. The company cited a McKinsey estimate that the financial industry detects around 2% of global financial crime flows whilst its own research found that poor data was a factor in 68% of UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) enforcement actions over the past five years.

The company added 45 clients during the year, including a Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB). The new client joins six G-SIBs already supported by the company. Its network has also passed 50 AML orchestration partners. Recent additions include UBO data provider Athennian in North America and legal-tech SaaS provider Infotrack in Australia.

Kyckr has reshaped its senior team since appointing Steve Lamb as chief executive in August 2025. Lamb previously served as the company’s head of product and chief operating officer. Subsequent appointments include former Equiniti executive Ian Jones as chief technology officer and former Thirdfort executive Andrew Kellett as head of customer delivery. Kyckr has also recruited commercial staff from Veriff and Moody’s.

Now entering its 20th year, Kyckr connects regulated firms to more than 300 official company registry sources worldwide. The company built the network to address fragmented and inconsistent corporate registry data across jurisdictions.

“The foundational KYB requirements for regulated firms are shifting, and demand for live company register data is only going to increase further,” said Lamb.

During the second half of 2026, Kyckr plans further investment in its registry network and a programme of product launches. The company is also preparing for the move towards reusable business identities under the European Business Wallet framework.

LSEG Integrates Financial Data with Model ML via MCP Connector

The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has announced that its licensed data and analytics are now available on Model ML. This integration is facilitated by a Model Context Protocol (MCP) connector, providing secure access to AI-ready financial content directly within financial services workflows.

Model ML operates as an AI workflow automation platform specifically designed for the financial sector. It features purpose-built agents and applications that assist professionals with market research, data analysis, and end-to-end workflow automation.

Through this integration, users will gain direct access to a comprehensive range of LSEG content. The newly available datasets include pricing, company reference data, estimates, fundamentals, and ownership records, alongside macroeconomic indicators, ESG data, news, forecasts, and financial analytical models.

TRG Screen Acquires BST America to Expand Market Data Advisory Services

TRG Screen, a global provider of market data and subscription management software for financial services and legal firms, has completed the acquisition of BST America. Based in New York, BST America operates as a specialist market data advisory and consultancy firm with more than two decades of industry expertise.

This transaction extends TRG Screen’s corporate offering across the entirety of the market data value chain. By integrating BST America’s operations, the company will now provide an end-to-end suite of services ranging from technology and managed services to high-level strategic advisory and consultancy.

BST America brings specialised capabilities to the acquisition, including vendor benchmarking, demand management, sourcing and negotiation strategy, alongside contract and renewal support. The firm joins TRG Screen with an established position in commercial operations, backed by long-term customer relationships and a consistent history of repeat client engagements.

BondWave Updates Effi Platform with Expanded Trade Oversight and TQA Capabilities

Financial technology solutions provider BondWave LLC has released an update to its fixed income platform, Effi, introducing expanded Trade Oversight and Transaction Quality Analysis (TQA) functions. The update increases the Trade Oversight module’s capabilities by adding 14 new configurable attributes, bringing the total to 23. These new attributes, which include Execution Yield, Base Price, and Minimum Denomination, allow firms to generate exceptions for internal review and tailor surveillance to their specific compliance policies.

Additionally, the update enables authorised users to view trade information directly from their trade files, searchable by security ID and date. The TQA solution has been improved to separate transaction costs and quality by the side of the market, offering compliance and trading teams more detailed data regarding execution performance.

The release also includes a new interactive tutorial for TQA metrics, improved visualisations to account for trades with unavailable transaction costs, and expanded right-click context menu functionality across the entire application. Finally, the system has been upgraded to .NET 10 to incorporate the latest performance and security improvements.

HACA Partners Selects Muinmos for Enhanced KYC/AML Capabilities

Luxembourg-based audit and consulting firm HACA Partners has selected Muinmos’ KYC and AML screening as it seeks to reduce manual processing and apply more consistent risk controls.

The Luxembourg-based audit and consulting firm, which supports more than 500 clients operating internationally will use the technology for checks on its own clients, its clients’ customers and work undertaken through its outsourced regulatory compliance service.

HACA’s previous screening approach included several manual processes and relied partly on individual analyst judgement. As HACA’s screening requirements grew, this made reviews more time-consuming and created a greater risk of inconsistent decisions. The new platform is intended to provide a scalable screening process, configurable risk policies and a complete audit trail for governance and regulatory review.

The system screens against more than 2,200 watchlists covering over 200 jurisdictions. HACA can also apply its own risk-based policies, thresholds and matching parameters rather than relying on standardised screening logic.

Cédric Leroy, Partner, Regulatory & Compliance at HACA, says the decision reflected the provider’s regulatory expertise, screening coverage and integration model. “Our decision to select Muinmos was driven by three converging factors. First, the depth of regulatory and compliance expertise embedded in the Muinmos team gave us confidence that the platform was built by practitioners who understand the real-world constraints of AML/CFT compliance – not just a technology product designed in isolation from regulatory requirements. Secondly, the comprehensiveness of the screening data was decisive, providing a level of coverage that is impossible to replicate manually. Thirdly, and critically for our operational model, the platform can be integrated via a single API into any existing system, CRM or workflow, which means we can embed it seamlessly into our own processes without disrupting existing client-facing operations.”

Copenhagen based Muinmos uses orchestrated artificial intelligence agents and machine learning to triage alerts, enrich screening results and escalate cases requiring attention. Its decisioning capabilities include configurable fuzzy matching, name transliteration, alias detection and date-of-birth checks, while HACA retains control over its compliance process.

The platform is also designed to respond automatically to changes in watchlists, rules and risk signals. This is particularly relevant to targeted financial sanctions, where firms may need to reflect changes quickly without waiting for manual system updates.

Remonda Kirketerp-Møller, Founder and CEO of Muinmos, described HACA Partners as an early adopter of AI-enabled compliance within a traditionally cautious sector. She said the firm’s approach is intended to strengthen compliance processes, improve client service and support business growth, while reflecting a shared emphasis on governance and regulatory rigour. “We are excited about the value we can add to HACA’s business, locally and globally, through our automated KYC/AML platform.”

Muinmos says its screening agent can reduce false positives by 76%. The company also reports onboarding times of up to 96% faster and a 32% reduction in onboarding-related expenses across its client base. HACA expects the deployment to improve screening responsiveness and reduce the volume of manual reviews, although the announcement does not provide the methodology or baseline used to calculate the performance figures.

BridgePort Pilots Digital Asset Master Agreement to Streamline Off-Exchange Settlement Onboarding

Institutional digital-asset firms may be able to trade without placing assets directly on an exchange, but establishing the legal relationships behind that model can remain a lengthy process. BridgePort is seeking to reduce that friction with a common contractual framework for off-exchange settlement arrangements involving trading firms, custodians and execution venues.

The company is piloting the Digital Asset Master Agreement (DAMA), a reusable legal template intended to replace some of the bespoke negotiations required whenever counterparties establish a new off-exchange settlement relationship. BridgePort is forming a working group of trading firms, custodians and exchanges to test the framework across live arrangements.

Off-exchange settlement allows a trading firm to retain assets with a custodian while trading across multiple venues. The structure can reduce assets held directly at exchanges and make collateral available across a wider range of trading relationships. Its practical benefits, however, depend on agreements defining how collateral, credit, settlement and default will be handled between the three parties.

Those agreements can take months to negotiate because each relationship may involve different custody structures, regulatory obligations and operational processes. DAMA is designed to provide a common set of definitions and contractual provisions while preserving the ability to configure the terms for individual counterparties.

The framework can, for example, specify whether collateral is held in trust or pledged under a security interest. Participants can also determine whether DAMA operates independently or refers to an existing International Swaps and Derivatives Association agreement.

“The infrastructure for off-exchange settlement is largely in place,” said Nirup Ramalingam, CEO of BridgePort. “The next phase of this market depends on standardizing the legal foundation beneath it, as has happened in every institutional market before. A shared standard lowers the barrier to entry and gives the market room to scale. DAMA will give the industry that foundation.”

The agreement covers four areas that can create legal and operational uncertainty in off-exchange settlement relationships.

Its custody provisions define how collateral is safeguarded and segregated, including whether assets are held in trust or pledged. Settlement terms address how credit is extended against that collateral, how balances are reconciled and how the settlement cycle operates.

The operational provisions establish how parties respond to erroneous transfers, failed settlements and outages affecting the balance information exchanged between custodians and venues. Default and termination clauses cover events such as venue insolvency or failure, together with close-out procedures, termination rights and the return of collateral.

Standardising these provisions could reduce the amount of legal work required for each new connection. The wider effect will depend on whether custodians, venues and trading firms are prepared to adopt the framework rather than continue using their own agreements.

“The long-term value of standardization extends well beyond faster onboarding,” said Steve Bartfield, chief product officer at BridgePort. He added that commonly adopted frameworks could allow market participants, law firms and industry bodies to develop legal analysis, operational expertise and market practices that can be reused across the sector.

DAMA takes inspiration from the role that master agreements play in established financial markets, but it is intended specifically for the tri-party relationships underpinning digital-asset off-exchange settlement. The pilot will test whether a shared foundation can accommodate different regulatory, commercial and custody models without recreating the agreement for every relationship.

BridgePort provides middleware for coordinating credit allocation and post-trade activity between trading firms, exchanges and custodians. DAMA extends that coordination proposition into the legal layer, addressing an onboarding constraint that technology integrations alone cannot resolve.

Muriel Siebert Selects tZERO for Tokenised Securities

Muriel Siebert & Co. has selected tZERO to provide the digital securities infrastructure for its new asset tokenisation business. Siebert, which manages some $20 billion in assets, is deploying tZERO’s technology stack to support its expansion into DLT-based investments. The platform will handle the entire lifecycle of Siebert’s digital assets, covering investor onboarding, compliance, custody, and secondary market trading.

The first investment product to be supported on Siebert’s tZERO’s platform will be GLDY, a gold-backed, yield-bearing tokenised security developed by Streamex. Siebert will provide private placement services utiising Rule 506(c) of Regulation D under the Securities Act to offer tokenised securities to accredited investors through its traditional brokerage channels.

Circle Set to Diversify Services via Trust Bank

Circle, the issuer of the world’s largest regulated stablecoin – USDC – has received approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A., a national trust bank. The bank will operate under the name Circle National Trust.

Via its trust bank, Circle will be able to offer digital asset custody services to itself, its affiliates, and to a limited number of institutional customers. Those customers could include banks and other financial institutions, such as regulated derivatives organisations. It also can manage its USDC Reserve fund directly, reducing costs and bringing the operation under federal regulatory oversight to further enhance the safety, transparency, and trust of USDC.

Strategically, the trust capability allows Circle to diversify from mainly issuing stablecoins to becoming a fuller service infrastructure provider to institutions issuing tokenised assets. Such a broadening of its services could be important as Circle is likely to face increased competition for stablecoin issuance once the Open Standard’s Open USD launches later this year.

Raiffeisen Bank International Upgrades to Broadridge’s BRx Match Platform

Centralised Raiffeisen International Services & Payments S.R.L. (CRISP), the shared service centre for Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), has adopted Broadridge’s cloud-based BRx Match reconciliation platform. The system upgrade aims to enhance operational efficiency, transparency, and accuracy across 14 markets in Europe and Asia, including the DACH region and Central and Eastern Europe.

The deployment is designed to accommodate a projected fourfold increase in CRISP’s transaction volumes. BRx Match offers improved exception management, enhanced automation, and seamless integration with ISO 20022 messaging standards. The transition involves both new system implementations and migrations from previous Broadridge solutions.

This agreement builds upon a partnership between CRISP and Broadridge that began in 2009. The upgraded technology infrastructure provides a scalable foundation to support CRISP’s future operational growth and regulatory compliance requirements, whilst simultaneously reducing its overall risk exposure.