Clausematch policy portal is now streamlining compliance for 90,000 Barclays employees

By Edlyn Cardoza

Clausematch, the global regulatory technology (RegTech) company automating policy management and compliance, recently announced that 90,000 Barclays Bank employees across the globe are now using its platform.

This industry-first partnership represents one of the first, and one of the largest initiatives in the space, and is a reflection of a growing recognition in the financial sector that compliance must be addressed on a company-wide basis. Clausematch’s technology supports Barclays in solving governance problems, realizing significant cost savings while reducing compliance-based risk. The rollout of Barclay’s Policy Portal in partnership with Clausematch is the successful culmination of a collaboration that spans more than six years.

Barclays was an early supporter of Clausematch’s vision, having selected the company for inclusion in its inaugural Barclays Accelerator program in 2014. The bank initially embedded Clausematch technology within its Compliance function, which laid the groundwork for rolling out the Policy Hub, one of Barclay’s first cloud-based technology implementations.

The Policy Hub has now evolved into the new Policy Portal – a fully digitalized, central point of reference for all Barclays Group policies and standards. The Portal introduces simplified workflows, saving up to 25% in time and resources on creating, reviewing, approving, and publishing policies.

Speaking of the collaboration, Evgeny Likhoded, CEO and Founder of Clausematch states: “We are proud to have established a long-term working relationship with Barclays that’s bringing tangible benefits in an area as complex as financial compliance. Our partnership demonstrates the mutual advantages and value to be gained by sharing the technical agility of a startup with the expertise and scale of an established institution like Barclays.”

Richard Thompson, Barclays UK Head of Digital Product Development who formerly led the Barclays Accelerator, says: “Back in 2014, Clausematch was a smart and promising small company of just six people looking for the right product-market fit. We knew that their ideas chimed with Barclays’ digitization goals and that they’d be able to benefit from the experience and mentoring of our business teams.” Clausematch has since grown to a team of sixty people.

Simon Fremont, Director for Policy and Standard Governance in the Chief Controls Office. “Close collaboration with the Clausematch team has allowed us to roll out a modern system with many of the new capabilities required by modern Tier 1 banks.”

Since the 2008 financial crisis, compliance costs for financial firms have increased by around 60%. At the same time, there has been a push towards digitalization with an increasing need for better collaboration and a more agile response to regulatory change. The rising importance of ESG transparency, along with an evolving regulatory landscape surrounding climate disclosures, adds a new dimension to financial compliance.

As one of Europe’s largest banks, Barclays is at the forefront of these changes and has invested heavily in tools and technologies designed to help it meet the challenges. Clausematch’s RegTech platform supports Barclays’ efforts to further its digital transformation and make financial and ESG compliance more effective. By streamlining the process of updating policies, frameworks, and controls, new systems and ways of working can be introduced more quickly and with less scope for disruption or human error.