Featured Product

    Nick Cook of FCA on Moving from Innovation Hub to Innovation Culture

    June 05, 2019

    Nick Cook, Director of Innovation at FCA spoke at the 6th Central Bank Executive Summit about how data and technology have, and are, changing the way FCA regulates, the ways FCA has reacted to and embraced that change, and how this approach has evolved over time. He also addressed the issues of what regulators and central banks will need to look like in the near future, the actions they will need to take, the resources they will need at their disposal, and the type of culture they will need to create: "a culture where innovation and new ways of approaching old problems are considered business as usual, rather than being undertaken in a ring-fenced or siloed function unique and distinct from the organization that it sits in."

    He emphasized that "a regulator should enable change to happen" and "the driver behind this need for change is in part the enormous and quickening pace of development and progress in the use of technology and data within financial services." He outlined the success achieved by FCA in the area of regtech, wherein FCA held TechSprints to encourage collaboration and new ideas and observed and supported proofs of concepts to encourage firms to think about how technology could make them more efficient at complying with regulation. Next, he explained the FCA ambitions, including its work toward international engagement via the Global Financial Innovation Network or GFIN, global regtech work, chairing of the IOSCO FinTech network, and formal and informal knowledge-sharing arrangements with authorities such as MAS, Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and FDIC. Depending on what the future brings, FCA will also be a keen participant of the European Forum for Innovation Facilitators, said Mr. Cook. The second ambition of FCA involves actively stimulating innovation in the market to deliver public value. To this end, FCA has identified GreenTech as a priority and will hold a second AML & Financial Crime TechSprint in London in July 2019. He added that the third area of FCA ambition is "around changing ourselves as a regulator." 

    The ambition is to instigate a cultural change in an organization that goes beyond the creation of Innovation Divisions and Innovation Directors. He mentioned adopting "suptech" programs to become more efficient and effective, to keep in step with the sweeping change that technology is instigating in the markets, and the firms that FCA regulates. One way FCA is doing this is through its digital regulatory reporting work. As part of this work, FCA is investigating how technology can fundamentally change the interface between FCA and the regulated firms by making parts of its Handbook machine-readable and machine-executable. In the longer term, bringing these data and analytics capabilities together to deliver near real-time monitoring of priority markets, to allow us to identify harm rapidly and to deter misconduct, is the goal.

    Finally, he discussed the challenges in the area of regtech, with one of them being the unavailability of an array of "off-the-shelf" technology solutions available for regulators and central banks. The regtech market is not fully able to "service our needs at this stage" and "we need to develop the solutions ourselves, in-house," added Mr. Cook. Another challenge, according to him, is "how we make this change lasting" and "make innovation part of our DNA, our business as usual." He said that, "It may seem odd for a leader of an Innovation Division to call for federating innovation capabilities rather than centralizing them, but, I believe, we will not achieve the transformation and outcomes we desire if the innovation activities remain contained within ring-fenced innovation functions. We must empower and engage our wider organization and federate new skills, capabilities, and behaviors widely."

     

    Related Link: Speech

     

    Keywords: Europe, UK, Banking, Insurance, Securities, Regtech, Suptech, Fintech, Innovation Culture, FCA

    Related Articles
    News

    FINMA Approves Merger of Credit Suisse and UBS

    The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has approved the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS.

    March 21, 2023 WebPage Regulatory News
    News

    BOE Sets Out Its Thinking on Regulatory Capital and Climate Risks

    The Bank of England (BOE) published a working paper that aims to understand the climate-related disclosures of UK financial institutions.

    March 13, 2023 WebPage Regulatory News
    News

    OSFI Finalizes on Climate Risk Guideline, Issues Other Updates

    The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) is seeking comments, until May 31, 2023, on the draft guideline on culture and behavior risk, with final guideline expected by the end of 2023.

    March 12, 2023 WebPage Regulatory News
    News

    APRA Assesses Macro-Prudential Policy Settings, Issues Other Updates

    The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) published an information paper that assesses its macro-prudential policy settings aimed at promoting stability at a systemic level.

    March 07, 2023 WebPage Regulatory News
    News

    BIS Paper Examines Impact of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on Lending

    BIS issued a paper that investigates the effect of the greenhouse gas, or GHG, emissions of firms on bank loans using bank–firm matched data of Japanese listed firms from 2006 to 2018.

    March 03, 2023 WebPage Regulatory News
    News

    HMT Mulls Alignment of Ring-Fencing and Resolution Regimes for Banks

    The HM Treasury (HMT) is seeking evidence, until May 07, 2023, on practicalities of aligning the ring-fencing and the banking resolution regimes for banks.

    March 02, 2023 WebPage Regulatory News
    News

    MFSA Sets Out Supervisory Priorities, Issues Reporting Updates

    The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) outlined its supervisory priorities for 2023

    March 02, 2023 WebPage Regulatory News
    News

    German Regulators Issue Multiple Reporting Updates for Banks

    Deutsche Bundesbank published the nationally deactivated validation rules for the German Commercial Code (HGB) users on the taxonomy 3.2, which became valid from December 31, 2022

    March 02, 2023 WebPage Regulatory News
    News

    BCBS Report Examines Impact of Basel III Framework for Banks

    The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) published results of the Basel III monitoring exercise based on the June 30, 2022 data.

    February 28, 2023 WebPage Regulatory News
    News

    PRA Consults on Prudential Rules for "Simpler-Regime" Firms

    Among the recent regulatory updates from UK authorities, a key development is the first-phase consultation, from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), on simplifications to the prudential framework that would apply to the simpler-regime firms.

    February 28, 2023 WebPage Regulatory News
    RESULTS 1 - 10 OF 8806