Regtech and compliance specialist NorthRow has been selected to join the fourth cohort of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s Regulatory Sandbox, an initiative launched in 2015 to provide a channel for businesses to test products and services in a controlled and customised live market environment.
NorthRow (formerly Contego) delivers customer onboarding through a combination of automated and managed identity verification (IDV), AML and KYC services, provided via a single API. Launched in 2011, it was recently selected to handle the onboarding verification process for the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE), a body created by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority in 2016 to create software standards and industry guidelines that drive competition and innovation in UK retail banking.
Adrian Black, CEO of NorthRow, said: “Accessing regulated financial data in a protected environment differentiates us from other identity verification providers who rely on manual, time-consuming processes to verify bank account data. It is the first step in our ambition to achieve FCA approval, which is required to access bank account data.”
The FCA received 69 submissions for the fourth phase of the Sandbox, with 29 applications accepted – the largest Sandbox cohort to date.
