Chartis Ranks Kyckr a Category Leader for 2025, Highlighting Strength in Corporate Structure and UBO Data

Kyckr has again been recognised by Chartis as one of the leading providers of Know Your Customer (KYC) data, reinforcing the company’s role in a market increasingly shaped by real-time, authoritative entity information. The latest Chartis RiskTech Quadrant for KYC Data and Solutions places Kyckr in the Category Leader tier for the second year running, reflecting growing industry demand for accurate company-registry intelligence as Know Your Customer (KYC), Know Your Business (KYB) and anti-money laundering (AML) obligations expand.

Chartis’ analysis examines 12 providers that supply KYC data to financial services firms, with evaluation criteria centred on data coverage, structure and delivery. Kyckr received top scores for “corporate structure” and “entity relationships” – areas that highlight the strength of its core proposition: live registry data aggregated from more than 300 official sources worldwide. Access to verified corporate data at this level of depth and jurisdictional breadth increasingly underpins due-diligence workflows, where firms are seeking to reduce manual effort and improve confidence in Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) verification.

Providing additional context on the ranking, Phil Mackenzie, Senior Research Principal at Chartis, noted: “Kyckr continues to demonstrate strength in an increasingly data-driven compliance ecosystem. Strong domain expertise and integration capabilities, as well as a focus on delivering real-time entity data at scale, all contributed to its category leader placement in the KYC Data RiskTech Quadrant.”

The recognition follows a year of expansion for Kyckr, including the onboarding of 28 new obliged entities, enhancements to data sourcing across key regions, and deeper integrations with RegTech platforms including Strise and Spektr.

Reflecting on the challenges firms face, CEO Steve Lamb said: “Companies needing to carry out customer due diligence are faced with tightening regulations and a fast-shifting registry landscape. This presents significant challenges in accessing reliable, authoritative data. Being named a category leader by Chartis Research is significant validation of Kyckr’s solution and reflects our continued investment in data quality, jurisdiction expansion and advanced entity-resolution technologies to support clients’ rapidly evolving compliance needs.”

Behavox Secures ISO/IEC 42001 Certification as AI Governance Expectations Rise

Behavox has earned certification to ISO/IEC 42001:2023, the first international standard for Artificial Intelligence Management Systems (AIMS). The certification, independently validated by Prescient Security, reflects the company’s efforts to formalise responsible, transparent and risk-based AI practices across its product ecosystem.

The standard is designed to help organisations structure and oversee the entire AI lifecycle—from design and engineering through deployment, monitoring and assurance. For Behavox, this spans the work of its Data Science organisation, including AI Engineering, AI Research, Data QA, ML Operations and AI Compliance teams, and covers its role as an AI Provider, Producer and System Integrator.

Behavox positions the certification as part of its long-term approach to trustworthy AI rather than a standalone compliance milestone. “This certification validates our deep commitment to ethical AI, risk-based governance, and operational excellence,” said Tigran Petrosyan, Head of Security and AI Governance Lead at Behavox. “By aligning our AI practices with ISO/IEC 42001, we not only meet global standards but go beyond them to set the benchmark for responsible AI in compliance and risk management.”

The certified scope includes Behavox Quantum, its AI-powered communication supervision solution used by global financial institutions and regulated firms. The company’s AIMS incorporates structured risk assessments, accountability and human oversight, model fairness and bias testing, and alignment with international regimes such as the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, Colorado AI Act, EU Market Abuse Regulation, GDPR, CCPA, DORA, and supervisory expectations from ESMA, FINRA, NFA, MAS, JSDA and IIROC.

According to Behavox, the certification will also support customers’ own governance obligations by providing assurance that core AI technologies are developed and managed under a recognised global framework. “As regulators, customers, and society demand more accountability in AI, this certification shows we’re not just using AI – we’re governing it responsibly,” added Nabeel Ebrahim, Chief Revenue Officer at Behavox.

CDM Momentum Builds as TradeHeader Reaches 1,000 Course Milestone

TradeHeader’s introductory training on the Common Domain Model (CDM) has now passed 1,000 learners, reflecting the growing appetite across financial institutions for practical, accessible pathways into data standardisation. The course – developed by TradeHeader and delivered via the Linux Foundation’s training platform in collaboration with the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS) – offers a concise grounding in how the CDM works and why it matters for reporting, interoperability and operational efficiency.

The milestone comes at a time when financial institutions are increasingly looking to embed open-source standards into day-to-day compliance workflows. With regulatory reporting regimes expanding and firms managing multiple templates, interpretations and local mappings, many teams are seeking a clearer, more consistent approach to expressing the logic behind their reporting data. The CDM’s promise of standardising lifecycle events and enabling machine-readable rules has therefore become more strategically relevant, particularly for institutions grappling with resource constraints – see FpML to DRR: TradeHeader’s Journey to the Heart of Regulatory Data Standards

TradeHeader’s long involvement in shaping industry standards – spanning FINOS CDM, ISDA’s Digital Regulatory Reporting (DRR), FpML and FIX – adds important context to this uptake. The firm participates in and chairs several working groups, and this proximity to the standard-setting process helps ensure the curriculum reflects both current practice and emerging regulatory expectations. The training aims to equip compliance officers, engineers and developers with enough foundational understanding to support CDM and DRR implementation internally or to manage vendor engagement more effectively.

Marc Gratacos, Founder and Managing Partner at TradeHeader, notes the shift in how institutions view regulatory change: “Regulatory compliance is no longer a one-off project that companies can complete and move on from – we at TradeHeader understand that it is an ongoing fact of life for organisations in the financial space. Many firms do not have the resources, time, or in-house expertise to implement the Common Domain Model and Digital Regulatory Reporting frameworks themselves. TradeHeader is committed to helping companies to meet these challenges using our proven blend of technology and industry expertise.”

This perspective aligns with broader industry dynamics. As firms adopt more digital regulatory frameworks, understanding how to codify rules as CDM functional expressions is becoming a baseline capability rather than a specialist task. The course addresses this directly, giving learners a structured introduction to the techniques used to translate regulatory text into shared, machine-executable logic.

The strong engagement also signals a rising expectation that market participants maintain fluency in data standards – not simply at the architect level, but across compliance, reporting and technology teams. Better familiarity with the CDM can reduce integration and interpretation risk and support more accurate, timely reporting across complex derivatives and securities workflows.

The training is openly accessible via the Linux Foundation:

Greenshoe Secures Funding to Advance AI-Native SEC Disclosure Capabilities

Chicago based RegTech company Greenshoe has raised $3 million in seed funding to scale its AI-driven platform for U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosures—an area long burdened by fragmented workflows, manual drafting, and costly review cycles. The investment round, led by AIX Ventures with participation from Hearst Level Up Ventures, Blueprint FTC, Service Provider Capital and others, supports Greenshoe’s broader ambition to modernise how public companies prepare regulated filings.

Preparing core disclosures such as 10-Qs and 10-Ks remains one of the most labour-intensive processes in corporate finance. By some estimates it can take “about 180 hours just to prepare a 10-Q,” with overall costs ranging “from roughly $50,000 for smaller companies to well over $1 million for large-cap enterprises.” Greenshoe positions its platform as an AI-native alternative, drawing on regulatory precedent, market norms, and live company data to improve speed, accuracy, and consistency.

Payton McCoy, Greenshoe’s CEO and co-founder, highlights the inertia that continues to shape corporate reporting workflows. “SEC filings are the foundation of market transparency, but the workflows powering them are stuck in a pre-AI world,” he noted. His experience as a practising lawyer underscores the need for change. “As a lawyer, I spent hundreds of hours manually preparing SEC disclosures, including 10-Ks, 8-Ks, and IPO filings. That said, Greenshoe is about more than just saving time. It’s about improving disclosure quality and making this work easier to do. We’re laying the rails for a smarter, faster capital markets ecosystem.”

Rather than acting as a simple drafting assistant, the platform is designed to manage the specialised tasks that make SEC reporting so resource-intensive. These include:

• Real-time compliance checks and validations
• Draft generation informed by regulatory precedent and market comparables
• Analysis of SEC comment letters and support for response drafting
• Peer-based benchmarking and research

CTO and co-founder Dr. Yi Zhang described the system’s adaptive architecture: “We’re building the infrastructure layer for AI-native disclosure intelligence. Our deep-research agent fuses reasoning, evaluation, reflection, and human feedback into a continuous improvement loop. Every interaction sharpens the system, compounding domain expertise into an advantage that makes the platform more intelligent.”

This continuous-learning approach underpins Greenshoe’s focus on complex document processing. Its architecture combines agentic retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), structured reasoning around SEC requirements, and benchmarking against peer disclosures. The result is a system that not only drafts content but interprets disclosure trends, assesses context, and aligns filings with evolving regulatory expectations.

Investors say this blend of regulatory expertise and technical depth sets the company apart. As AIX Ventures partner Jason McBride put it: “SEC disclosures are among the most important and complex documents in corporate finance, and Greenshoe is the first team we’ve seen that truly understands both the regulatory nuance and the AI infrastructure required to modernize them. We invested because Greenshoe isn’t just building a tool. They’re defining an entirely new layer in the regulatory tech stack.”

Greenshoe is targeting the approximately 4,700 U.S. public companies that must repeatedly navigate SEC disclosure cycles, internal approvals, and market comparables. Early adopters include legal teams and capital markets practitioners, with reported time savings of up to 90% on some tasks.

CUBE Expands AI Capability with Acquisition of Kodex AI

Automated regulatory intelligence innovator CUBE has acquired Berlin-based Kodex AI, a technology start-up recognised for applying agentic AI to compliance and risk management in financial services. The move strengthens CUBE’s position in automated regulatory intelligence (ARI) and regulatory change management (RCM), while advancing its goal of building the “third pillar” of its AI platform.

Kodex AI’s agentic architecture introduces “co-worker” functionality, enabling AI to act as a digital colleague within compliance workflows. Its technology blends fine-tuned AI models with regulatory data and knowledge graphs, designed to enhance automation and accuracy in monitoring evolving rules. The integration will extend the capabilities of CUBE’s RegPlatform, providing customers with deeper, AI-driven insight and control over regulatory change.

The acquisition also brings new technical talent to CUBE, with Kodex AI’s Berlin-based team joining the business. Having developed a large-language model for financial document analysis through Deutsche Bank’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence Programme, Kodex can demonstrate the precision and domain expertise behind its technology.

CUBE founder and CEO Ben Richmond said: “Thomas and Claus have built an exceptional and disruptive European technology business, pioneering the use of agentic AI through an agent-based architecture to solve regulatory complexities. Kodex AI is a natural next step in CUBE’s strategy, allowing us to instantly deliver enhanced, AI-based compliance and risk capabilities to our global customers.”

Kodex AI co-founder Thomas Kaiser described the integration as a rare opportunity to reshape the industry: “Combining Kodex AI’s technology leadership with CUBE’s market-leading regulatory and risk data is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to redefine the compliance and risk space. This is the perfect use case for advanced AI, and together we’ll push the boundaries of what’s possible.”

CUBE serves around 1,000 customers globally and employs more than 800 people across 20 countries. Backed by private-equity firm Hg since March 2024, the company has pursued a strategy of expanding its unified RegPlatform™ through targeted acquisitions, including Thomson Reuters Global Regulatory Intelligence, Oden, Reg-Room and Acin.

Hg director Thomas Martin said: “This acquisition once again highlights CUBE’s ambition and drive to change the status quo for the RegTech industry. Since inception, Ben has been driving the business to embrace the latest technology and the addition of Kodex AI will significantly boost the team’s agentic AI capabilities.”

ISITC Europe and Genbounty Partner to Offer Independent Audits Aligned with EU AI Act

In a move to support regulated firms across Europe, ISITC Europe CIC has forged a partnership with AI compliance platform Genbounty to deliver third-party AI audits and accreditation. The objective: help organizations build credible AI governance programs and ensure alignment with evolving regulatory standards.

Tackling the AI Governance Gap

As AI deployments proliferate in financial services and capital markets, many firms struggle to translate high-level rules into operational controls. While the EU AI Act defines a compliance baseline, supervisory expectations vary across jurisdictions. In the UK, the FCA’s stated approach is technology agnostic and outcomes-focused, applying existing regulatory frameworks to firms’ use of AI rather than creating AI-specific rules. This stance is reflected across its AI Update, press material and speeches—and operationalised via initiatives like AI Live Testing.

Gary Wright, Director of Industry Affairs and one of ISITC Europe’s founders, underscores the challenge. He argues that firms need clarity on how their AI components affect risk, controls, and accountability. Under this partnership, “ISITC Europe as a not-for profit community interest company will act as an independent resource for members to help manage their AI components and ensure compliance.” The offering will include audits, access to verified AI testers, workshops, benchmark reports, and post-market monitoring.

From Genbounty’s side, co-founder Rob Morel positioned the platform’s role as providing ongoing regulatory insight. He explained that the system will keep users apprised of changes and help them understand “AI components utilised across enterprises.” Through the MOU, Genbounty’s tools and vetted testers will be made available to ISITC Europe’s membership.

What This Enables — and What Still Must Be Built

This collaboration is not simply a new service launch, but a signal of maturation in the AI compliance space. By offering independent assessments, it helps fill a gap between regulation and implementation, particularly for institutions lacking internal AI expertise.

Still, several challenges lie ahead:

• Operationalizing audits. Translating compliance results into practical remediation plans will require domain experience in AI, model risk management, and financial workflows.
• Maintaining independence. As audits are performed by a provider with commercial ties, perceptions of impartiality must be managed.
• Evolving rules. The EU AI Act itself is dynamic; firms will need to continually adapt their controls as standards are refined.

Nonetheless, for firms seeking credible third-party validation of AI governance, this new path offers a clearer route than doing so in isolation.

ACA Group Introduces a New Framework to Strengthen Buy-Side Market Abuse Controls

Amid growing regulatory pressure and heightened investor scrutiny, ACA Group has unveiled a new Market Abuse Risk Framework aimed at helping UK and European buy-side firms identify, manage, and monitor market abuse risks across trading activities.

The initiative arrives as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) steps up enforcement with a five-year strategy that prioritises market abuse and accountability under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR). Recent insider trading cases and the regulator’s July 2025 consultation on SM&CR reforms have further raised expectations for demonstrable, firm-wide conduct frameworks aligned with MAR and MiFID II.

Developed by ACA practitioners with extensive buy-side experience, the framework integrates surveillance, conduct, and control reviews into a single, regulator-ready model. It maps market abuse offences across asset classes, supports policy and procedure assessments, and evaluates surveillance technologies to ensure alignment with firms’ risk profiles. The solution also includes a proprietary question bank drawn from ACA’s client work and provides practical guidance on maintaining and updating the framework over time.

“What truly differentiates this solution is the depth of expertise driving it,” said Raj Somal, Partner at ACA Group. “Our clients are navigating increasingly-complex trading, and jurisdictional and infrastructure environments, and often without a clear, actionable view of their market abuse risk. This isn’t just a health check; it’s a dynamic, evolving programme that firms can use to strengthen governance, meet evolving regulatory and business expectations, and build investor confidence.”

The Market Abuse Risk Framework complements ACA’s broader compliance ecosystem, including its ComplianceAlpha® platform, which offers surveillance and monitoring tools spanning trade and communications activity, conflicts of interest, expert networks, and research oversight. Combined with advisory and managed services, these tools enable firms to remediate findings, enhance governance, and maintain ongoing compliance amid shifting regulatory expectations.

ACA will host a live session on 23 October 2025 to discuss the rising focus on market abuse, surveillance practices, and senior manager accountability across the buy-side sector.

Kaizen Unveils MAR360 to Tackle Market Abuse Risk with Integrated Surveillance and Training

Kaizen has unveiled MAR360, a new compliance suite aimed at helping financial institutions manage the complex challenge of detecting and preventing market abuse. The release reflects a growing regulatory push to tighten controls and ensure firms can demonstrate robust frameworks to supervisors.

The suite brings together three elements: a market abuse risk assessment tool, trade and communications surveillance technology, and a training programme led by industry experts. The risk assessment module analyses more than 27 distinct risk areas, drawing on past enforcement actions and industry practice. According to Kaizen, the design – supported by AI techniques – is intended to flag vulnerabilities that might otherwise remain hidden.

The surveillance platform and training programme complement the risk framework, offering firms an integrated approach. Training is delivered by subject-matter specialists and former regulators, with ongoing support to help remediate gaps and strengthen operational resilience.

Simon Appleton, Market Abuse & Surveillance Director at Kaizen, said: “Our MAR360 solution moves beyond standard surveillance systems to the proactive management of market abuse risk, supporting the Financial Conduct Authority’s five year strategy to fight financial crime. As global regulators continue to focus on market abuse, firms need to integrate their solutions and controls to demonstrate to regulators how they are taking steps to detect and prevent market abuse incidents happening in the first place.”

By aligning technological tools with regulatory expectations, Kaizen is positioning MAR360 as a resource for institutions looking to evidence control and readiness in an environment where scrutiny of market conduct is steadily increasing.

Social Media-Linked Surveillance by Deutsche Börse, Scila and Stockpulse

Deutsche Börse has expanded its market surveillance capabilities by incorporating social media intelligence into its Scila powered surveillance platform. The move reflects a growing recognition of the role social media plays in market dynamics and the risks it presents for manipulation and misinformation.

The integration, delivered through a collaboration between Scila and German analytics specialist Stockpulse.AI, brings near real-time monitoring of millions of social media posts, alongside data feeds covering more than 70,000 global equities and thousands of cryptocurrencies. The combined system gives Deutsche Börse’s surveillance team a broader perspective, correlating trading activity with social media sentiment and news buzz to identify potential irregularities faster. Andreas Mitschke, Head of Trading Surveillance at Deutsche Börse, noted that “the ability to correlate trading patterns with social media activity provides our team with crucial context for investigating potential market abuse.”

Scila’s chief executive, Mikko Andersson, described the development as “a natural evolution in market oversight,” stressing the importance of combining traditional market data analysis with social intelligence to deliver a fuller picture of risks. The company sees the joint offering as an additional layer of defence for exchanges and regulators seeking to keep pace with the speed of information flows across digital platforms.

For Stockpulse, the collaboration highlights the value of applying artificial intelligence to large-scale, unstructured data. “Our advanced algorithms and AI applications analyse millions of social media posts and news articles in near real-time, providing actionable intelligence that helps surveillance teams identify unusual patterns and potential market manipulation,” said CEO Dr. Stefan Nann.

By adopting this solution, Deutsche Börse becomes the first major exchange to embed social media intelligence directly into its surveillance workflows. The enhancement is intended to improve efficiency, provide earlier detection of suspicious behaviour, and ultimately strengthen market integrity. The same integrated capabilities are now available to other Scila Surveillance clients, with options for tailoring to specific regulatory or operational needs.

Qomply Brings in Former FCA Regulator to Drive Global Growth

Qomply has strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Neil Treloar as Chief Operating Officer, underscoring its ambition to scale internationally in regulatory reporting. Based in London, Treloar joins at a pivotal point in the firm’s expansion, bringing a rare combination of supervisory, policy and market experience.

Treloar’s career spans more than three decades across wholesale markets, regulatory strategy and financial technology. At the Financial Conduct Authority(FCA), he held senior roles including Lead Supervisor for Wholesale Brokers Fixed and Senior Associate overseeing Trading Venues and (CRA) oversight. Prior to that, as Head of Regulatory Strategy at Tradition, he played a central role in shaping MiFID II policy and Brexit planning, liaising directly with UK and EU authorities. His earlier career included senior posts at JP Morgan and NatWest Markets, where he cut his teeth on the LIFFE floor.

Qomply’s co-founder Michelle Zak highlighted Treloar’s mix of perspectives: “Neil’s combination of regulatory expertise, financial technology, and global market experience makes him an invaluable addition to our team.” She noted that his arrival comes as the firm looks to build out its operational resilience and client delivery internationally.

For Treloar, the move is about timing as much as opportunity. “I am excited to be joining Qomply at such a pivotal moment in its growth journey. The firm has built a strong reputation for innovation and accuracy in regulatory reporting, and I look forward to working with the talented team here to expand our global footprint and deliver even greater value to clients worldwide,” he said.

The appointment reflects broader momentum in the regulatory reporting market, where firms are under mounting pressure to achieve both accuracy and efficiency in their submissions. Qomply’s decision to recruit a senior figure with both supervisory and market experience signals its intention to position itself as a trusted partner in this space, as global reporting standards continue to evolve.