Introduction | Awards Categories | Judges | Submission Process | Enter the Awards | FAQ | 2020 Winners

AWARDS CATEGORIES

Category A: Best Solutions

Within this category, we look at three broad areas in which financial institutions leverage technology solutions to meet regulatory demands and stay compliant: Institutional Resilience and Integrity; Financial Crime Compliance; and Markets and Infrastructure.

Solutions will be assessed on multiple criteria, including the ease and speed of implementation, flexibility, robustness, scalability, transparency, technical support, cost, and return on investment for end clients.

Depending on the number and diversity of submissions received, some categories may be split off into subcategories and evaluated separately based on the specific regulatory requirements being addressed, and the types of firms providing solutions.

A1: Institutional Resilience and Integrity

This category will recognise solutions for financial risk modelling, forecasting and stress-testing that help banks to ensure capital and liquidity are adequate to meet regulatory and operational requirements. Given the heavy data and processing needs typically required for these processes, the judges will consider whether the solution helps banks manage large datasets and increase the number and variety of scenarios that can be modelled.
This category will recognise solutions that help financial institutions assess and manage current and future credit risk exposures. The judging panel will be particularly interested in solutions that can ingest alternative data, allow model customisation, and provide porfolio monitoring and early warning features - so that lenders can more proactively manage the full spectrum of credit risk in the current economic environment.
This category will recognise technology solutions and services that enable financial institutions to remain compliant with regulatory reporting obligations. Our judging panel will look at robustness, adaptability, transparency, and flexibility, as well as the solution’s ability to integrate source data from disparate systems, reconcile and validate the data, and generate reports. Solutions that cater to different types of reporting (e.g. tax reporting, trade reporting, AML, etc.) will be considered separately.
This category will recognise platforms, solutions and services that help financial institutions monitor for changes in regulatory requirements, assist them in making change decisions, and facilitate organisational planning around required changes. Our judging panel will be interested in workflow management tools that help firms manage their end-to-end compliance processes efficiently and effectively and reduce legal and regulatory risk.
This category will recognise solutions that can use advanced datasets, analytics and innovative approaches in the detection and management of conduct risk within financial institutions. The judges will look for tools that use behavioural indicators and metrics to help identify sources of misconduct risk, inform decision-making, measure performance and track progress over time.

A2: Fraud & Financial Crime

This category will recognise solutions that reliably ensure a speedy, frictionless and efficient customer onboarding process without sacrificing on KYC and AML/CFT compliance obligations. Such solutions should incorporate screening and risk scoring components to ensure new customers that present higher risk can be detected quickly and easily. Our judging panel will pay regard to solutions that enhance regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, time to revenue and client experience.
This category will recognise solutions that can reliably help financial institutions apply risk-based assessments to onboarding corporate customers, particularly when uncertainties exist around ownership structures, beneficial ownership and possible links between entities. The judging panel will look for solutions that facilitate due diligence, help identify bad actors, ensure compliance and effectively manage risk.
This category will recognise services and solutions that enable effective due diligence of supply chains and third parties, help financial institutions to identify red flags, and enable quality investigations. Solutions should include due diligence reports and have protections in place to safeguard sensitive information. Due diligence reports should take into account corporate structures, beneficial ownership, sanctions and PEPs lists, adverse media, and anti-bribery and corruption risks - among other factors.
This category will recognise solutions which can help financial institutions assess customer risk throughout the entire client journey, from onboarding and account opening to customer monitoring and regular reviews of KYC data. Solutions should be able to provide a complete view of customer information across business lines and help organisations centralise client relationship management and communications, while also streamlining compliance-related workflows and document management processes.
This category will recognise technology solutions which leverage advanced analytics, artificial intelligence or machine learning to automate AML/CFT compliance processes, enhance effectiveness, reduce false positives and identify "true positives". Our judging panel will look for analytics solutions that can enrich the KYC process, enhance sanctions screening performance, optimise transaction monitoring, reduce false positives, or help to uncover links between individual and/or corporate customers, among other use cases.
This category will recognise solutions that help financial institutions assess the risk of trade transactions they execute and finance. Solutions should account for the nature of the goods or services, the parties and entities involved in the transaction, including vessels, cities and ports. The judging panel will consider specialised tools for due diligence, document checking, and automation that help to guard against TBML, sanctions evasion, and circumvention of trade controls.
This category will recognise solutions that help financial institutions screen customers against lists of sanctioned individuals and entities, politically exposed persons, and other lists maintained by law enforcement and other authorities. The judging panel will look for solutions that allow batch screening, configuration flexibility, and fuzzy matching capabilities to minimise the risk of true hits being omitted.
This category will recognise solutions that help financial institutions to identify and halt potentially fraudulent account activity. The judging panel will look for solutions that leverage advanced authentication and identity verification tools, real-time transaction scoring, decisioning, alert management, and monitoring of user behaviour, devices and account activity to detect anomalies and prevent fraud losses in real-time.
This category will recognise services and solutions that help financial institutions to bolster their cyber resilience through the implementation of advanced security measures and monitoring capabilities, or help to reduce the risk of a cyber incident impairing a firm's ability to operate. The judging panel will also consider tools that are designed to help firms protect their data - including customer and employee data, sensitive financial information, and trade secrets.
This category will recognise solutions that enable firms to manage tax reporting obligations across jurisdictions in an efficient and compliant manner. The judging panel will be looking for solutions that are able to ingest the required data, compile reports, and perform integrity checks to ensure the accuracy of reports.

A3: Markets and Infrastructure

This category will recognise solutions that can perform monitoring of trading and market activities and use analytics and/or AI/machine learning to detect suspicious patterns, market abuse and misconduct risk in a variety of asset classes. The judging panel will also consider solutions that offer capabilities in market, trade, communications surveillance, as well as conflicts of interests and personal account dealing management.
This category will recognise services and solutions that help firms prepare for compliance with phase 6 of UMR (Uncleared Margin Rules). Given the type of firms coming into scope in phase 6, the judging panel will be most interested in solutions that provide cost, efficiency and automation benefits in areas such as contract repapering, custodial agreements negotiation, collateral optimisation, margin calculation.
This category will recognise data solutions that help financial institutions to obtain accurate and complete information about financial instruments and their issuers, including security identifiers, terms and conditions, corporate actions, entity linkages and ownership data, identification information and other datasets. The judging panel will look for providers whose datasets comprehensively cover global markets and asset classes.
This category will recognise solutions which facilitate compliance with disclosure obligations relating to major shareholdings, short selling and position reporting. The judging panel will be looking for solutions that provide threshold monitoring, workflow automation, and automated report generation, while also allowing flexibility for aggregation and disaggregation of holdings for reporting by different group structures.
This category will recognise solutions which help financial institutions with pre- and post-trade reporting and data reconciliation across asset classes and jurisdictions. The judges will look for solutions which can help to enrich a firm’s in-house data to meet completeness, accuracy and timeliness standards required by regulators, while offering certainty on trade reporting workflows, including to address post-reporting error clean-up and reconciliation.
This category will recognise solutions that help financial institutions to maximise automation of operations related to corporate actions. Solutions should provide financial institutions proactive controls which can ensure that all relevant updates are captured, formatted and delivered to the relevant stakeholders in a timely manner. The judges will look for solutions which reduce risk of failure, improve operational efficiency and enhance client services.

Category B: Outstanding Projects

Within this category, we will recognise how specific financial institutions or services providers are applying innovative techniques or technology solutions to address specific regulatory requirements, focusing on project implementations that deliver value in a way that sets them apart from industry peers. Firms of any type or size can submit projects completed in the Asia Pacific region within the past 12-18 months.

The judges will consider the scope and complexity of projects, cost-effectiveness, process efficiency, and the overall results when assessing submissions.

In addition, we have introduced four new awards aimed at recognising industry initiatives that stand out as being particularly unique or innovative in their approach to dealing with regulatory and compliance challenges.

This category will recognise projects and initiatives undertaken by a public-private partnership involving collaboration between regulators, law enforcement, financial institutions or other stakeholders to address wider industry challenges. The judging panel will consider collaborative work done to combat financial crime, recover stolen assets, develop technology platforms or solutions for industry use, or other notable efforts.
This category will recognise projects and initiatives undertaken by an APAC regulator that leverages innovative approaches to dealing with long-standing industry challenges, and make it easier for financial industry participants to comply with regulatory requirements. The judging panel will look for projects that promise to significantly lower the regulatory burden for stakeholders, have broad application for a wide segment of the financiial industry, and can show clear adoption and success in achieving their objectives.
This category will recognise collaborative initiatives that feature participation from regulators, industry bodies, financial industry participants and other stakeholders, and have a common objective of addressing a regulatory or compliance challenge. Our judging panel will consider initiatives that involve the collaborative development of new technology, industry platforms, common practices or standards, and other collaborative projects that provide broad industry benefits.
This category will recognise RegTech initiatives that stand out as being particularly unique or innovative in their approach to dealing with a regulatory or compliance challenge. The judging panel will consider technology implementations and initiatives that significantly lower the regulatory burden for financial industry participants, the outcomes achieved from such initiatives, and their ability to demonstrate success.
This category will recognise projects at individual financial institutions that may have been particularly wide in scope or complexity, but where implementation was achieved with measurable outcomes that indicate success. The judging panel will consider projects that were undertaken in-house, with external consultancy, or using technology developed by service providers or vendors.

Category C: RegTech Awards

Within this category, we will recognise firms that are playing a leading role in developing new and emerging technologies, using them in unique and innovative ways to help financial institutions meet regulatory requirements. This category will focus on the application of technology itself rather than the specific use case – provided that the technology is used to help financial institutions achieve regulatory compliance objectives.

This category will recognise early stage firms and startups that have developed capabilities in the use of AI/machine learning that facilitate compliance with regulatory requirements or help the industry address risk management or governance challenges. This award will focus on the application of technology itself rather than the specific use case.
This category will recognise early stage firms and startups that have developed capabilities in the use of data or analytics to facilitate compliance with regulatory requirements or help the industry address risk management, governance or reporting challenges. This award will focus on the application of technology itself rather than the specific use case.

Category D: Industry Awards

Within this category, we will seek to recognise regulators, market infrastructures, exchanges, and service providers that help the financial industry comply with regulatory requirements.

This category will recognise financial market infrastructures including payment systems, CSDs, securities settlement systems, CCPs and trade repositories. The judging panel will look for firms that have demonstrated leadership in initiatives aimed at modernising industry practices, enhancing overall efficiency and transparency, reducing cost, and minimising broader financial system risk.
This category will recognise stock and derivatives exchanges that demonstrate global or regional leadership, competitive advantages, an innovative culture, and a commitment to sustainability. Market growth, cost-efficient operations, fair market access and transparency will be key considerations for the judging panel in this category.
This category will recognise data providers whose services help financial institutions stay compliant with regulatory requirements. Data services may include reference data, market data, product data, credit data, watchlist data, or other risk intelligence data that are required to meet a regulatory need. The judging panel will look for comprehensiveness of data, ease of access, and cost relative to comparable alternatives.
This category will recognise law firms that have assisted financial institutions in their handling of regulatory and enforcement matters, particularly those that involve complex or multi-jurisdictional issues. The judging panel will especially consider efforts to lobby regulators on behalf of the industry or specific financial institutions. Client testimonials, case studies, published articles, white papers and media citations will also be considered.
This category will recognise consulting firms that have assisted financial institutions in managing regulatory issues, or advised on or facilitated implementation of regulatory projects. The judging panel will take an outcomes-based approach to assessing submissions, taking into account client testimonials, case studies, published articles, white papers, media citations and other information.
This category will recognise firms that specialise in providing compliance training services that help financial industry practitioners bolster their awareness and understanding of regulatory requirements and foster a strong compliance culture and mindset. The judging panel will look for firms that use innovative methods to facilitate learning. and can demonstrate strong uptake of compliance training programmes, with measurable results.
This category will recognise firms that help financial institutions understand and comply with legal and regulatory obligations, such as in areas relating to licensing, business setup, governance, risk management or other functions which require specialist expertise to commence or maintain operations in the financial sector. The judging panel will look for firms that are able to demonstrate outcomes-based success for the services they provide.
This category will recognise industry associations that focus on regulatory reforms, addressing compliance challenges, promoting financial system stability, and developing better practices and industry standards. The judging panel will also consider efforts to connect and educate industry professionals, promote harmonisation of regulatory requirements and standards across jurisdictions, and help to reduce the regulatory burden for the industry.
This category will recognise initiatives, projects, firms and solutions that have resulted in a significant contribution to advancing regulatory reforms that promote market integrity, financial system stability, and overall industry resilience to risk. The judging panel will consider efforts to improve industry practices and standards, advance conduct and culture initiatives, and enhance governance and risk management practices.
This category will recognise compliance teams within financial institutions that demonstrate a commitment to market integrity, sound risk management, and regulatory compliance. The judging panel will consider efforts to entrench sound culture within organisations, promote good market behaviour and conduct, and adopt a proactive approach to compliance.

 Category E: Ones to Watch

Within this category, we will recognise new and emerging start-ups and solutions that are pioneering innovative applications of technology to meet regulatory requirements, but are either in an early stage of industry adoption or have a relatively new product or solution.

Companies awarded in this category will be decided by our judging panel and editorial team based on the submissions received in the other awards categories. Additional submissions are not required to participate in this category.

Introduction | Awards Categories | Judges | Submission Process | Enter the Awards | FAQ | 2020 Winners

To Top
Share via
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap