SteelEye Integrates Trade Surveillance with AI-Powered Compliance CoPilot

Integrated surveillance provider, SteelEye has expanded Compliance CoPilot by integrating its trade surveillance capabilities. Leveraging advanced large language models (LLMs), the enhanced tool provides automation, intelligent analysis and actionable insights, enabling compliance practitioners to prioritize high-risk alerts and streamline their review workflow. 

By intelligently scoring and prioritizing alerts, the Compliance CoPilot allows analysts to focus on the most critical risks, significantly reducing manual review time by up to 90%. Compliance CoPilot has been in production for communications surveillance since November 2023, the AI-powered integration with trade surveillance now offers comprehensive alert explanations and provides recommendations for categorizing and resolving alerts, complete with rationales. 

The increasing interconnectedness and complexity of financial markets have empowered wrongdoers to adopt more sophisticated market manipulation tactics, such as cross-product manipulation—a form of abuse where trades in one product are used to manipulate the price of another. See the recent RegTech Insight story on SteelEye’s Cross-product manipulation detection capability.  

Surveillance teams face the dual challenge of detecting these advanced abuses while managing a surge in alert volumes amid tightening budget constraints. “Compliance staff are under immense strain, overwhelmed by volumes of suspicious trading alerts each day,” said Matt Storey, Chief Product Officer at SteelEye. “The ability to prioritize the most important alerts is essential for bolstering firms’ risk management practices. The Compliance CoPilot empowers teams to operate more effectively and proactively, becoming the go-to sidekick for surveillance officers.” 

According to SteelEye’s 2024 Annual Compliance Health Check Report, spending on compliance has decreased significantly compared to 2023, even as market abuses like cross-product manipulation become more prevalent. With a 30% increase in reported market abuse cases this year, firms are under more pressure than ever to improve their surveillance capabilities. By allowing firms to intelligently manage their workload and focus on the most urgent alerts, the AI-enabled assistant enhances the efficiency and accuracy of surveillance functions. It also affords firms more time to assess and strengthen their market surveillance capabilities on a broader scale. 

Built with compliance-specific AI, the Compliance CoPilot provides transparent explanations and rationales for its recommendations, ensuring trust in its operations. The tool integrates seamlessly into existing workflows for SteelEye users, offering an immediate boost to their surveillance operations without disrupting established processes. 

In an era of escalating market complexities and tighter budgets, SteelEye’s enhanced Compliance CoPilot offers a comprehensive tool for firms aiming to stay ahead of sophisticated market manipulation tactics. For more insights from the 2024 Compliance Health Check Report, visit the SteelEye website. 

Novatus Secures $40 Million Growth Funding from Silversmith Capital Partners

Novatus Global, a leader in regulatory technology for financial institutions, has raised $40 million from Boston based growth equity firm Silversmith Capital Partners. This funding marks a significant step for Novatus, enabling the company to expand globally and enhance its technology amid an increasingly complex regulatory landscape. 

Founded in 2019 by experienced industry professionals, Novatus has quickly built a strong reputation among top banks, asset managers, and financial institutions. Over the past year, the company has seen its revenue more than triple, reflecting the growing demand for its compliance solutions. The investment from Silversmith will help Novatus enhance its flagship platform, En:ACT, a cloud-native SaaS solution that simplifies complex transaction reporting requirements across various global jurisdictions. 

Andrew Hedley, Co-Founder and Partner of Novatus, emphasized the alignment between the two companies. “Silversmith shares our vision of creating products that make our clients’ operations safer and more efficient,” he said. “This investment will allow us to deepen our commitment to innovation while accelerating our international expansion, particularly in North America.” 

Co-Founder and Partner Mathew Ranson highlighted the company’s unique approach to transaction reporting, drawing on the founders deep operational knowledge of the transaction reporting space and its challenges. “We built Novatus with a focus on automation and technology, moving away from human-driven processes. Silversmith recognized the potential of our En:ACT platform, which leverages AI and machine learning to address regulatory challenges with fresh thinking.” 

Silversmith’s Principal, Ned Kingsley, echoed this sentiment, expressing confidence in Novatus’ future. “We look for founders who solve real-world problems, and Andrew and Matt have done exactly that. We’re excited to support their continued growth,” Kingsley noted. 

Alan Robertson, Partner at Maven Capital Partners, which had previously invested in Novatus, praised the company’s progress. “Since our initial investment, client adoption of En:ACT has driven a 13-fold increase in annual recurring revenues. We remain committed to supporting Novatus in scaling globally and enhancing its market-leading platform,” Robertson stated. 

This new partnership will also see Silversmith’s Todd MacLean and Ned Kingsley joining the Novatus board, further reinforcing the strategic alignment between the two firms.  

By combining deep industry knowledge with AI-powered technology, Novatus is well positioned to help its clients navigate an evolving global landscape with greater confidence and agility. 

Droit Achieves Top Cloud Security Certifications, Strengthening Trust in Data Integrity

Droit, a leader in computational law and regulatory technology, has achieved the ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and ISO/IEC 27017:2015 certifications, solidifying its commitment to cloud security and data protection. These certifications, which represent the highest international standards, reassure clients amid increasing concerns over cyber threats.

Droit’s latest certifications demonstrate its proactive stance on resilience, security, and data privacy, assuring clients that the firm’s security frameworks align with globally recognized best practices.

Achieving these certifications offers several benefits: enhanced protection against cyber-attacks, adherence to evolving security standards, secure management of information across formats, and a unified approach to safeguarding data. “These certifications are a testament to the hard work and dedication of our entire team,” said Brock Arnason, Founder and CEO of Droit. “We’re fostering a culture where security excellence is integral to our business.”

Arnason added, “Our clients can be confident that their data and cloud services are secure, bolstering their own compliance efforts through our alignment with ISO standards.”

ISO/IEC 27001 focuses on information security, cybersecurity, and privacy protection, while ISO/IEC 27017 provides guidelines specific to cloud security. Both standards address emerging threats in cloud computing and advanced technologies, reinforcing trust among Droit’s stakeholders.

Kaveh Moravej, Droit’s Head of Information Security, emphasized the importance of these certifications: “Integrating these standards goes beyond compliance; it embodies our commitment to prioritizing client data security in every facet of our operations.”

These certifications build on Droit’s 2022 achievement of the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification, further demonstrating its dedication to a robust Information Security Management System (ISMS) that meets global benchmarks.

Sedric AI Secures $18.5 Million Series A to Revolutionize Compliance for Financial Institutions

Sedric AI, a pioneer in AI-driven compliance technology for financial institutions, has raised $18.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Foundation Capital, with participation from Amex Ventures. This investment brings Sedric’s total funding to $22 million, which will be used to expand its AI lab in Tel Aviv and strengthen its global sales teams. 

As financial institutions increasingly adopt generative AI to enhance their offerings, they face growing scrutiny from regulators to ensure robust safeguards across all customer touchpoints. “For financial institutions, compliance and growth can often feel like competing priorities,” said Nir Laznik, co-founder and CEO of Sedric. “Our compliance-dedicated AI turns risk into an opportunity, providing a proven, bank-ready solution already widely adopted across the financial services sector.” 

Sedric’s platform is among the first of its kind to feature a large language model specifically designed for compliance, giving firms a holistic view of their compliance risks across all communication channels. The technology allows companies to quickly identify and correct potential policy breaches, reducing the need for costly manual reviews. 

The company’s growth has been impressive, with revenue increasing fivefold in the past year. Sedric now counts global banks, lenders, trading platforms, and insurers among its clients in the U.S. and Europe. 

Eyal Peleg, co-founder and CTO, emphasized the importance of responsible AI adoption: “GenAI will transform the financial sector, but it’s crucial to use it responsibly. Our platform provides the guardrails needed to ensure AI is used safely and within regulatory boundaries.” 

Pinnacle IM Taps TRAction for Streamlined Transaction Reporting

Pinnacle Investment Management, multi-affiliate investment firm, has turned to  TRAction for help to enhance its transaction reporting for both European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) and Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) rules. Pinnacle will use TRAction’s trade reporting solution to simplify reporting processes and reduce the burden on internal resources. TRAction’s platform automates the submission of reports, while also helping Pinnacle to navigate complex reporting requirements to ensure compliance. The initiative comes as firms address recent and upcoming regulatory changes, such as the EMIR Refit (effective from April this year) and the ASIC Rewrite (coming into effect in October). 

Eventus Partners with ANCORD to Offer Validus Trade Surveillance Platform to Brazilian Brokers

Eventus, the trade surveillance and financial risk solutions vendor, has entered a partnership with ANCORD, Brazil’s National Association of Securities, Foreign Exchange and Commodities Brokers and Dealers. Through the collaboration, Eventus’ Validus platform will be accessible to ANCORD members, enabling them to implement a comprehensive trade surveillance solution tailored to their specific needs.

The partnership follows BSM’s recent mandate requiring Brazilian brokerages to independently monitor trading activities to detect regulatory infractions such as insider trading and spoofing. Validus offers extensive automation and adaptability to meet these new guidelines and cope with regulatory changes and data surges.

Eventus CEO Travis Schwab commented: “Brazil has long been focused on protecting investors and ensuring that firms prevent, detect and root out bad behaviour. Our Validus platform is proven in many of the most demanding trading environments globally, and brokers in Brazil can now tap into our expertise and high-performance technology to not only meet regulatory requirements but bring significant efficiencies to their compliance programs.”

Eventus boasts a client retention rate close to 100% and serves a diverse range of clients globally, including Tier 1 banks, brokers, and regulatory bodies.

Adesso Unveils Compl.AI to Address DORA Contractual Provisions

Global IT services provider, Adesso, has unveiled Compl.AI, a generative AI (GenAI) tool to verify that third-party contracts for critical services are in alignment with the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).  

The third-party risk management provisions of DORA require the rigorous oversight of third-party ICT providers, including cloud services providers, to ensure that they don’t become a source of vulnerability. These provisions are crucial for ensuring that financial entities remain compliant with DORA and can effectively manage ICT risks associated with third-party services. 

Compl.AI is delivered ‘as a service’ (SaaS) and leverages GenAI technology and Adesso’s DORA expertise to deliver an automated verification of third-party contracts, at scale, to swiftly identify compliance confidence levels and identify cases that require remediation.   

Libero Raspa, director at Adesso UK, emphasized the challenges financial firms face under DORA and highlighted Compl.AI’s ability to save time, reduce costs, and streamline compliance processes, positioning firms ahead of the January 2025 deadline. 

Adesso, supports over 80 banks in Germany with tailored services that merge technology, expertise, and customer-centric methodologies. Their focus on digital transformation, AI-driven automation, and customer experience aims to enhance competitiveness in the evolving financial landscape.

SymphonyAI Extends Financial Crime Data Solution

Artificial intelligence-powered software-as-a-service provide SymphonyAI has expanded its financial services offerings with a product to help organisations overcome entity data shortcomings that could enable financial crime.

The Palo Alto, California-based company said its Entity Resolution service enables clients to solve issues such as records duplication, poor data quality and data fragmentation. The company, which focuses its financial services business on fraud prevention, said the service would also aid in identifying concealed relationships, all of which could be used by criminal networks.

Abaxx Exchange Selects Eventus for Trade Surveillance

Abaxx Exchange, a new marketplace based in Singapore, has chosen Eventus to provide its trade surveillance platform. Abaxx Exchange commenced trading on June 28, 2024, offering global futures on energy, metals, and other energy transition-focused commodities, starting with liquified natural gas (LNG) and carbon, with plans to introduce battery metals soon.

Abaxx Exchange, under the majority ownership of Abaxx Singapore Pte Ltd., is the first new regulated exchange and clearinghouse focused on physical commodities to be built from the ground up in over a decade. The exchange sought a robust, customisable, and scalable market surveillance tool that could be quickly and easily implemented. Eventus’ Validus platform was selected for its flexibility, strong workflow automation, and the support of an experienced and responsive team.

Eventus CEO Travis Schwab commented: “We are incredibly honoured that Abaxx has entrusted our team to provide the backbone of its critical trade surveillance function through the Validus platform. The innovative commodity exchange has generated significant interest in the industry. Market integrity is a high priority for the exchange, and Abaxx will benefit from our expertise and high-performance surveillance technology used by marketplaces and leading financial institutions across the globe.”

The deployment of the Validus platform marks a significant step in ensuring that Abaxx Exchange can maintain rigorous surveillance and control over its market activities, providing a secure and efficient trading environment for its participants.

REGnosys Contributes Rosetta Language to FINOS

REGnosys has contributed its proprietary language, formerly known as the Rosetta DSL (Domain-Specific Language) and now renamed Rune, to the Fintech Open-Source Foundation (FINOS). This move is part of REGnosys’s broader mission to foster industry-wide collaboration and innovation in regulatory reporting through open-source solutions.

Rune, the language underpinning REGnosys’s digital regulatory reporting solution, is now governed by FINOS. This open-source initiative allows for contributions, testing, and sharing of regulatory logic in a system- and technology-agnostic manner.

Rune integrates seamlessly with REGnosys’s Rosetta, an award-winning data modelling platform also available for free to the community. This integration enhances the platform’s capabilities, making it a robust tool for regulatory reporting.

Major financial institutions, including BNP Paribas, JP Morgan Chase, Standard Chartered, Pictet, and DTCC, are supporting and implementing Rune-powered projects. These projects aim to enhance operational efficiency and resilience in regulatory reporting.

Rune has been successfully deployed in production for ISDA’s Digital Regulatory Reporting (DRR) programme, which uses the Common Domain Model (CDM) to express trade reporting rules as machine-executable code.

Leo Labeis, Founder and CEO of REGnosys, emphasizes the vision of community-driven compliance. Eleanor Kelly, Global Head of Markets Regulatory Change and Control at JP Morgan Chase & Co., highlights the benefits of expressing data requirements through open-source technology.

Syed Ali, Managing Director of Repository & Derivatives Services at DTCC, supports the use of standardized, machine-readable logic for regulatory reporting.

Scott O’Malia, Chief Executive of ISDA, praises the cost-effectiveness and accuracy of the ISDA DRR. Jane Gavronsky, Chief Operating Officer at FINOS, welcomes Rune to the FINOS portfolio and emphasizes its potential to revolutionize regulatory reporting.

Key Features of Rune (Rosetta DSL)

Rune enables a unified representation of data and business logic, allowing various financial market applications to communicate effectively. It abstracts business logic from technical implementation, ensuring that the logic remains consistent and comprehensible across different systems.

The language is designed to be accessible to non-programmers, such as operations and compliance professionals, who can directly write regulatory logic. This accessibility helps bridge the gap between domain experts and IT implementation.

Rune is built to be technology-neutral, leveraging the Eclipse Modelling Framework (EMF). This ensures that models can be represented in a standard format (Ecore) and easily integrated into various technology stacks, whether on-premises, cloud, or hybrid environments.

The Rosetta platform includes code generators that translate models written in Rune into executable code. This automation simplifies the deployment of regulatory logic across different programming languages and systems, enhancing operational efficiency and accuracy.

As an open-source project under FINOS, Rune encourages community contributions. The platform provides a collaborative environment where users can create, edit, and share models, fostering industry-wide cooperation and innovation in regulatory reporting.

Rune has been deployed in production for regulatory reporting, particularly within ISDA’s Digital Regulatory Reporting (DRR) programme. It uses the Common Domain Model (CDM) to express trade reporting rules as machine-executable code, enhancing transparency and compliance across global financial institutions.

Leading financial institutions such as JP Morgan Chase, BNP Paribas, and DTCC have implemented Rune-powered solutions to improve their regulatory reporting processes, demonstrating the language’s practical benefits in real-world applications.

The Rosetta platform, which includes the Rune DSL, offers a comprehensive solution for developing, testing, and deploying regulatory models, providing tools for design, data translation, deployment, and monitoring. This integrated approach ensures that firms can manage their regulatory obligations more effectively, leveraging the power of open-source collaboration to stay ahead of evolving compliance requirements.