The Growing Need for Speed, Transparency & Trust

By: Jaspreet Randhawa

New waves of change and disruption are underway in this new decade, in spite of and in some ways accelerated by the global health crisis which is forcing financial services firms and all large enterprise to focus on digital transformation as part of business continuity and even survival.

We have seen disruption create opportunities before, including three decades ago when electronic trading, fueled by the growth of the Internet and advances in private data and network infrastructure, began to dismantle traditional exchanges and trading floors.

Technology change continues to speed up, and to remain competitive, participants in the global financial markets need to constantly assess how they are operating, how much they are spending, and how agile they are when it comes to increasingly complex regulatory and compliance requirements.

The combined effects of technological advancements, including the mass adoption of cloud and the evolution of ultra-secure private networks, the move to “mobile first” working, demographic shifts, and geo-political uncertainty are impacting institutional banking more than any other industry.

The rise in cyberattacks and fraudulent activities, by insiders and outsiders, also carries serious implications for the banking industry.

We cannot stop these waves, but we can recognize the patterns, and can embrace a world where banking will be more open, transparent, intelligent, secure and real time, with new rules and tools for institutions and their counter-parties.

Banks and other institutions, including exchanges, clearing and settlement firms, and government regulators are investing in new approaches, including the adoption of Distributed Ledger (or blockchain) to address the chaos and streamline the flow of information while securing valuable data with “single source of truth” paradigms.

The most enlightened enterprises are fortifying their digital foundation and modernizing their technology infrastructure, data management, risk management, cybersecurity and talent management systems.

Fusion & Innovation

Market leading CIOs, CTOs and CROs have already begun to experiment then deploy disruptive technologies in addition to Distributed Ledger and Blockchain, machine learning, quantum computing, open source software development, edge computing and virtualized, programmable networking which create new opportunities, while also generating new risks – what some call the “unintended consequences” of innovation.

Globalization inspired collaboration and coordination during the first two decades of this century and led to great efficiencies in the development of standard protocols, interworking, interoperability, and governance.

However, in the wake of economic shifts and uncertainty, we have witnessed a divergence over the last few years in global regulatory standards, as many countries looking for ways to spur economic growth have relaxed regulations to spur economic growth. We are now confronted with global regulatory fragmentation, creating yet another layer of complexity in the world of transactions and compliance.  

Given this shape-shifting fragmentation, financial institutions, especially the largest with expansive global operations, are under pressure to reconcile local and national regulations as subsets of their global posture. Smaller institutions are not immune to these changes, and with the possibility of another economic downturn, there is no time like the present to transform and prepare.

It is time for banks to move forward in modernizing their compliance systems with faster, more transparent, and trusted methodologies and technologies.

BeyondVerified has a crystalline vision and technologies in place and under development that will simplify, strengthen, and secure regulatory compliance processes and data flows, leveraging an immutable ledger that can be viewed by all, but not altered.

Our first two companies are ResourceVerified and The Regulatory Trust Co.

ResourceVerified is a patent pending technology platform designed to enable compliance with FINRA Rule 3110(e) with an effective and efficient process.  ResourceVerified is listed in the FINRA Compliance vendor directory.  Whilst we are focused on compliance in Financial Services, ResourceVerified is simultaneously disrupting the current opaque, manual, repetitive and costly process of applicant and employee verification. Our automated solution radically reduces employer costs and instances of mis-hires. Our system replaces thousands of offices, individually and repeatedly verifying the same information while countering millions of bytes of misinformation. ResourceVerified replaces current, archaic process with a single verified record.

The Regulatory Trust Co. is a patent pending technology platform designed to dramatically improve efficiency and trust.  Our unique methodology enables a firm to take an end of day snapshot of the business while tracking all associated processes with time stamps and digital identifiers.  All information is stored in a distributed ledger making it an immutable record and enabling regulatory compliance.

We are building these first two operating companies with a passion for an industry we have grown up in over our entire careers. We are attracting not only talented and experienced professionals, but people who believe in the extraordinary value of financial systems that are efficient and fair and serve as the underpinning of economic growth and opportunity.

We come from financial services companies, exchanges, brokerages, investment banks, regulatory agencies, software development companies, infrastructure providers and more. We have witnessed dramatic changes over our lifetimes, and are motivated to contribute to the advancement of the markets through modernization that benefits every participant in the “digital supply chain” – from retail investors to institutional investors, from public companies to government regulators.

2021 will likely be another year of disruption and rationalization in the investment banking industry, especially as we also adapt to the global pandemic, which is expected to impact every industry, including ours.

Simplification is becoming an urgent priority, with the bigger players now willing to make investments to simplify and innovate around advanced software platforms and infrastructure designed from the ground up for Speed – Transparency – Trust.

We will continue to share our progress, and we look forward to engaging with those who share in our confidence that it is time for a better way, one that benefits all.

Other Recent Blogs