5 top Asian RegTechs that are disrupting financial services

By Edil Corneille

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the adoption of biometrics, fraud management, KYC and AML technologies have increased to boost security and compliance in finance. RegTech or Regulatory Technology enables businesses to comply and manage regulatory processes in the financial industry, though it has its applications in other sectors as well. The applications of RegTechs in the banking and financial services institutions can be mainly classified into regulatory compliance, financial crime, KYC & identity management, and risk management. With the increase in the amount of data availability, new startups are coming along with RegTech solutions, helping businesses to comply with their regulatory burdens in a cost-effective manner. Mentioned below are 5 Asian RegTechs helping companies develop their RegTech strategies.

Centenal

The company provides compliance solutions for wealth managers. Its platform allows for the consolidation of all regulated AML, CRS and FATCA data in one place and may also be used to associate and consolidate data via API, including AML transaction and sanctions monitoring data in order to provide an enhanced Risk Management Framework.

The Singapore-based company’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS) module, in partnership with Flyingboat and CRS/FATCA One, enables financial institutions to automate their CRS reporting function, including XML submission of financial account data to over 40 tax authorities.

The CRS Audit module of Centenal provides an essential analytical tool and guidance to enable financial institutions to effectively prepare for their first CRS audit assessment. The CRS Advisory service by Centenal provides financial institutions with practical advice and assistance in relation to implementation and ongoing compliance with the CRS.

CustomerXPs (Clari5)

Indian software product company CustomerXPs provides financial crime risk management and customer experience management solutions to banking institutions. Founded in 2006, the company markets its financial crime risk management software product under the brand name Clari5. The Clari5 Real-time AML solution helps institutions automate, streamline and comply with existing and emerging regulatory AML/CFT compliance programs.

The Enterprise Fraud Management (EFM) solution of the brand is a real-time intelligent big data solution that combats sophisticated fraud with real-time, actionable insights. Clari5 EFM is designed to meet the fraud detection, investigation, prevention, monitoring compliance and audit needs of banks. In June, Nigerian information technology company CWG announced its partnership with Clari5 to jointly help African banks combat enterprise fraud and money laundering.

Dathena

Founded in 2016, Dathena is a deep-tech Singaporean company that provides an A.I. Driven Data Discovery and Classification platform, bringing a new paradigm to data privacy and security solutions. Enterprises around the globe rely on Dathena to identify, classify and control their sensitive data, reduce risks, and enhance the data protection framework.

Leveraging the power of modern AI technologies, Dathena delivers petabyte-scale solutions with accuracy, efficiency and speed that build consumer trust in a digital world and ensure the privacy and data security protection journey. Employing over 70 people, Dathena continues to grow with offices in Singapore, Bangkok, Geneva, Lausanne, Paris, and New York City.

IDfy

Mumbai-based IDfy is helping build a world without fraud where people and businesses can engage with confidence. As a gatekeeper, IDfy ensures that only the real can enter and transact. The company’s proprietary systems are built on the latest in machine-learning based anomaly detection, machine vision, and identity authentication techniques. These systems catch new and emerging fraud as well as the fraud that previously went undetected.

IDfy provides risk and fraud solutions processing a million people profiles every day for more than 150 companies. IDfy’s solutions help safely onboard customers, merchants, service partners, and employees. These solutions are ensuring safety and compliance in 500 live clients across industries such as banks and financial services, e-commerce, telecom, healthcare, P2P communities, gaming, and logistics.

IDfy’s investors include MegaDelta Capital, Blume Ventures, BEENext, and Dream Incubators. In late October, Novato-based CRMNEXT announced its integration with IDfy to provide video banking, fraud detection and digital KYC solutions for banks. The facility of zero touch account opening, onboarding and servicing is available for customers who can start their journeys from any device with AI-enabled processes including video KYC.

Merkle Science

Merkle Science provides blockchain transaction monitoring and intelligence solutions for cryptoasset service providers, financial institutions and government agencies to detect, investigate and prevent money laundering, terrorist financing and other criminal activities. Merkle Science is based in Singapore with offices in Bangalore and Tokyo and backed by Digital Currency Group, Kenetic, SGInnovate and LuneX.

The RegTech helps companies comply with local and international regulatory obligations effectively. Its tools automates the transaction monitoring processes for more efficient crypto asset compliance. The company helps build trust with banks, regulators and customers by implementing AML/CFT monitoring procedures.

The company combines multiple databases with proprietary algorithms and models to help identify sophisticated criminal activity patterns in a complex landscape. Merkle Science’s team of cryptocrime investigators provide on-demand intelligence reports to support investigations into criminal and suspicious activity involving cryptocurrencies.