Brendan McCarthy attended the Department for International Trade’s (DIT) ‘Landing a Successful Bank-FinTech Partnership in the US’ event which took place last week.  

As part of Invest Northern Ireland’s ‘Graduate to Export’ programme, Brendan will travel to the United States later this year to represent Datactics in the region. “My role in-market will help drive Datactics’ international expansion plans by sourcing new business and potential partnerships within North America. This webinar offered advice for scaling tech companies growing in the United States and the necessary steps to take when forming new partnerships with banks and other financial institutions. The panellists were industry experts, so it was great to hear all of their stories and insights”. 

One such key insight came from Ron Kalifa, Chairman at Network International, who stated that “RegTech is another one that’s going to come fast to the United States”. An Insights Report, commissioned by DIT, was also published to complement the webinar, offering key ideas for FinTechs to remember when partnering with a US bank. We picked our top three.  

• Firstly, pick the ‘right’ problem.  For banks, not all problems are equally concerning. Understand priority areas among critical stakeholders – and propose services to directly solve these. To start, look to improve client engagement or offer data-driven risk-profiling and credit decision support.  
• Secondly, start narrow, move wider. This reiterates the importance of procurement, legal, innovation, and other teams. It’s vital to prove your value and build internal allies.  
• Thirdly, FinTechs need to respect and recognise cultural differences. Rapid innovation can sometimes be unnecessarily disruptive, so it’s key to understand the appetite banks have for disruption and where they will be most responsive to innovation. 

Another valuable insight noted during the webinar was the need for FinTechs to provide banks with “fresh capabilities and new revenue opportunities”. The panellists commented that this  meant identifying the right problem, one that intersects both the FinTech’s functional expertise and a priority issue for the bank. As one bank lead noted, “Finding the hierarchy of priorities (inside a bank) is critical.”  

This event allowed us to develop a better understanding of the U.S. market and to understand key ideas that are central to US partnerships. From the vitality of building internal allies, to proving value, to picking the ‘right’ problem, to understanding cultural differences.  

Brendan noted that, “The last twelve months have restricted the opportunities for partnerships between banks and FinTechs due to the lack of face-to-face engagement and personal interaction. However, as the world continues toward a path of normality, and regulatory compliance pressures continue to mount on banks and other financial institutions, we at  Datactics eagerly await for the opportunity to travel across the pond and spend time in North America, once again engaging with partners and meeting with clients face-to-face”. 
  
All being well, Brendan is planning on being based in New York from September this year to seek out opportunities to speak to people in the industry about the Datactics Self-Service Data Quality platform. Our next gen, no-code toolbox is built with the business user in mind, allowing business subject matter experts to easily measure data to regulatory & industry standards, fix breaches in bulk and push into reporting tools, with full visibility and audit trail for Chief Risk and Data Officers. If you want to know more about how the Datactics solution can help automate the highly manual issue of data matching for customer onboarding, then please reach out.

The post Landing a Successful Bank-FinTech Partnership in the US – DIT Event – Brendan McCarthy appeared first on Datactics.

Welcome to our fortnightly round-up from Datactics, highlighting some great moments of achievement for us… 

Bloor Mutable Award 2021 

Just like the blink of an eye, Friday is upon us again and it’s time for us to tell you all the exciting developments that have been happening over the past two weeks! 

To kick-off, we delightedly announced this week that Datactics has secured a further accolade for the quality of its technology, this time from Bloor Research. Datactics Self-Service Data Quality (SSDQ) has been awarded the Platinum Mutable Award in the 2021 Report.

The award recognises software vendors that enable their clients to deal with data management processes in an intelligent and business-focused way. 

Download your copy of the InBrief article from Bloor Research to find out more. 

Datactics is a leader in the 2021 SoftwareReviews Data Quality Data Quadrant 

We are thrilled to announce that Datactics has been recognised as a leader in the 2021 Data Quality Data Quadrant report from SoftReviews (a division of IT research and consulting from Info-Tech Research Group). 

The award is based on the collective experience of real users, and placement is based on their satisfaction with the product features, vendor experience, capabilities and emotional sentiment. Datactics was named a leader, with a composite score of 8.5, which represents the complete and aggregated satisfaction score from end users. Vendor support and availability & quality of training were two of the strongest capabilities associated with Datactics, resulting in a 100% Plan to Renew reported by its users.  

We managed to also secure the top satisfaction scores in a variety of areas representing vendor capabilities and product features, including: Satisfaction that Cost is Fair Relative to Value, Ease of IT Administration and Data Matching & Data Cleansing.  

The Finnovate Show featuring Matt Flenley available to listen to! 

Matt Flenley, recently contributed to The Finnovate Show, a podcast that gives a space for financial service leaders that are leading change and innovation a chance to share. 

The podcast covered topics including: 

• How Datactics has evolved during COVID-19 
• How the current regulatory environment is evolving 
• The implications of how the current regulatory environment is evolving 
• Where the current regulatory environment leaves FIs. 

Matt’s podcast can be listened to here.

Contributed to Nigma Community Meet up 

On the 31st March, our Head of Artificial Intelligence, Dr Fiona Browne shared at the Nigma Community Meet up event on the topic of ‘How to get started with AI and ML’. This is a Meetup which is aimed at keeping student developers and learners up-to-date on the latest technology stacks and current software trends that are being demanded by employers. It can be difficult to be a student or learner in the software sector, heading out into the industry for the first time, whether that be on your placement, internship or your first graduate job. Jonathan Armstrong, Cirdan and Darren Broderick from Liberty IT also contributed to the event. Overall, the feedback was brilliant with lots of great questions asked. We are delighted to be able to support the next wave of developers. 

We attended FinTech Talents North America 2021 

Last week, we attended a delegation of 12 other Northern Irish companies for a virtual conference entitled ‘FinTech Talents North America’.

The event showcased a selection of leading financial services companies from Northern Ireland who offer a range of innovative services and solutions for areas including FinTech, Cybersecurity and Data Analytics, AI and IOT, servicing banks, corporations, governments, and utilities worldwide. The event was highly valuable with great conversations happening throughout. We were thrilled to be a part of it! 

Welcome to Roisin and Jack! 

We are excited that our team has continued to grow. We have welcomed Roisin Floyd into the Marketing Team and Jack Torrens into the pre-sales team. We interviewed both of them about their new venture. You can read both pieces here by clicking the following images. 

Upcoming Events 

Stuart Harvey is contributing to a webinar on the topic of ‘𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀’, brought to you by Data Management Insight, from A-Team Insight. 

Register for the webinar to find out: 
 

• How to establish data quality 
• How to implement effective data governance 
• The benefits of combining data quality and governance 
• The best technologies and tools for these tasks 
• How to ensure accurate and meaningful analytics 

To register for this event on the 22nd of April, click here. 

Finally, we hope you have a Happy Easter, from all of us at Datactics! 

For more on AI and Ethics, Data Quality, or just an introduction to our new team members, you can find us on Linkedin, Twitter or Facebook. 

The post Datactics Round-Up: Bloor Research Platinum Award & The SoftwareReviews Data Quality Quadrant appeared first on Datactics.

A Finnovate Show Appearance 

Just like that it’s Friday again and it’s time for us to update you on the excitement that’s been happening at Datactics over the past fortnight.  Matt Flenley recently spoke on the Finnovate Show, a podcast that gives a space for financial service leaders that are leading change and innovation a chance to share. The podcast covered topics including how Datactics has evolved during COVID-19, how the current regulatory environment is evolving and the implications of this and where this leaves FIs. Matt’s podcast will be released in due course and we will be sharing it across our social media platforms, so make sure to keep an eye out for that!  

AI and Ethics Panel chats with the experts 

In other news, Dr Fiona Browne was able to share last week on a panel moderated by Ramesh Dontha, Data Transformers on the topic of AI and Ethics. Increasingly, as you know, companies are leveraging data and artificial intelligence to create scalable solutions – but they’re also scaling their reputational, regulatory, and legal risks. Fiona, alongside AI exports Cortnie Abercrombie and Fion Lee-Madan unpacked the conversation further. To discuss more around this subject, reach out to Fiona on LinkedIn today.

AI for Services Roadshow with KTN 

Sticking with Fiona, she recently pitched at KTN: AI for Services Roadshow. The aim of the event was to discover the innovation taking place across the UK in the professional and financial, insurance, accountancy and law sectors. Kainos, Adoreboard and Analytics Engines are in amongst the few other companies that also represented Northern Ireland in the AI for Services Tour. To listen to Fiona’s pitch, click here: Northern Ireland Tour.  

Growing team at Datactics 

At Datactics we are delighted to announce that we have grown the team by 3 new members this week. We are taking part in Invest Northern Ireland’s Graduate to Export scheme alongside a number of ambitious, scaling companies putting people into international markets.  Two new International Business Development Executives have joined the team, Brendan McCarthy and Michael Lynch, who will both respectively spend 6 months working in our Belfast Headquarters before Michael heads off to Japan and Brendan to New York for 12 months. In market, they will help us engage clients we already have in the region and scale the business overseas. We are also welcoming our brand-new Graduate Research Associate and Writer to the team, Roisin Floyd, who will take on the challenge of going deeper on many of the data and industry topics our clients are passionate about.  Feel free to connect to any of these new team members on LinkedIn as I am sure they would love to talk to you about their new, key roles within our rapidly-growing team! 

Upcoming events 

At Datactics the events calendar never sleeps! Firstly, Stuart Harvey will be sharing on a panel in conjunction with Invest NI and American Banker. Alongside Dave Linsday, Vox Managing Director and Data Practice Lead and Simon Cole, CEO of hivera, they will discuss how they can help banks accelerate digital transformation to overcome the challenges of legacy systems. Together they will provide CIOs, CISOs, CDOs, and CROs valuable insight and best practices for using technology and optimizing data to break new ground in banking. Register for the event here. 

Stuart also is contributing to a webinar on the topic of ‘𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀’, brought to you by Data Management Insight, from A-Team Insight. 
 
Register for the webinar to find out: 
 
– How to establish data quality 
– How to implement effective data governance 
– The benefits of combining data quality and governance 
– The best technologies and tools for these tasks 
– How to ensure accurate and meaningful analytics 
 
To register for this event on the 22nd of April, click here.

For more on AI and Ethics webinar, Data Quality or just an introduction to our new team members, you can find us on Linkedin, Twitter or Facebook for the latest news. 

The post Datactics Round-Up: From speaking on the Finnovate Show to welcoming our new Graduate to Export team members! appeared first on Datactics.

The Future of InsurTech will feature leaders and companies from the world of technology, Fintech and insurance on how the InsurTech industry is evolving and innovating to adapt to the changing world around us, including the impact of driverless cars and more connected devices will have on our lives. 

Advancements in technology and computing power have transformed many traditional industries. Like banking and financial services, the insurance industry is being disrupted by traditional companies and startups alike. Billions of investment dollars are now flowing into the sector and consumers are now able to access new and more efficient products.

Registration and agenda are available here

Click here for more by Datactics, or find us on Linkedin, Twitter or Facebook for the latest news. 

The post The Future of InsurTech – Digital DNA | 28/04 appeared first on Datactics.

FinTech is rapidly changing the way people bank and the way banks wish to operate.

But for the majority of financial institutions, their desire to deploy modern digital, AI, machine learning, and data solutions (either enterprise-wide or for specific functions) is usually quashed by a familiar culprit: the antiquated and often disparate core processing systems that lay at the back end of most organizations.

In this webinar, we will discuss real case studies with other leading FinTech/RegTech companies hivera and Vox Financial Partners. This group will explain how they help banks accelerate digital transformation, overcoming the significant challenges presented by ancient legacy systems. Together they will provide CIOs, CISOs, CDOs, and CROs valuable insight and best practices for using technology and optimizing data to break new ground in banking.

The post InvestNI with American Banker | FinTech on Main Street: Trading Legacy Systems for Digital Transformation | 25/03 appeared first on Datactics.

Data quality has been a perennial problem for financial institutions for many years, but this needs to change as firms become increasingly reliant on accurate analytics to deliver business opportunity and competitive advantage.

New approaches to data quality can help firms up their game and significantly improve their analytics capability.

Adding the processes, controls and responsibilities of data governance takes them a step further by ensuring the quality and security of data used across the organisation.

If your organisation is falling short of achieving timely and meaningful analytics, or is doing well but could do better, join this webinar to find out how to establish the underlying, yet all-important, essentials of data quality and data governance.

Register for this DMI Data Management Insight webinar to find out:

• How to establish data quality
• How to implement effective data governance
• The benefits of combining data quality and governance
• The best technologies and tools for these tasks
• How to ensure accurate and meaningful analytics

You can find more recent content on this topic here.

The post DMI: How to establish data quality and data governance for analytics | 22/04 appeared first on Datactics.

Datactics is proud to be one of 37 UK tech firms that were selected across a wide range of sectors and verticals, to showcase our solution at the UK FinTech Mission.

The virtual event aimed to offer participants, attendees, and partners an inspiring network and learning opportunity.  

For those attendees that were from Austria and Switzerland, the company profiles of the UK companies were made available, as well as the possibility to learn more about the products and solutions on the marketplace that they are offering or extend the talks via 1:1 meetings.

Our representative, Jordan Wray, described his experience at this virtual event here. To keep up to date with future events that Datactics is attending, visit out events page here.

The post UK FinTech Mission to Austria & Switzerland appeared first on Datactics.

Datactics is proud to be one of 37 UK tech firms to be selected across a wide range of sectors and verticals to showcase our solution at the UK FinTech Mission. The virtual event aims to offer participants, attendees, and partners an inspiring network and learning opportunity.  

For those attendees that are from Austria and Switzerland, you can view the company profiles of the UK companies, as well as learn more about the products and solutions on the marketplace that they are offering. You can also schedule 1:1 meetings that will take place on 28^th January. 

Representing Datactics at this virtual event is Business Development Executive, Jordan Wray. In the past 3 years since the event’s launch, there have been over 550 1:1 meetings! We thought would sit down with Jordan, to discuss what he is looking forward to, his excitement to share our solutions and of course, the upturn in virtual events. 

Jordan, how do you feel about being involved with UK FinTech Mission 2021? 

I am really looking forward to it, it’s a very relevant event for us. There will be many different FinTechs (virtually) present, that we normally wouldn’t get to speak to. There are also many prominent different financial organisations that we are looking forward to engaging with, some of which have already booked 1:1 sessions. We are excited to share our solution and show off the capabilities that it has and the subsequent benefits that it will bring. 

Have you been involved in this event before? 

No, this is my first time! Last year I helped a bit with the planning, but this year is my first time being a representative for the company. I have been really impressed with how easy it is to request and set up meetings virtually. I was really impressed by how eager people were to set up meetings, I think there will be some great discussions on the day.  

There are a large proportion of Financial Institutions in attendance, which is great for us. This event has had over 400+ participants from Austria and Switzerland over the last 3 years, so we are excited to once again be a part of it. 

How important is it for Datactics to be a part of an event such as this? 

We are delighted to be able to meet the attendees because a meeting might lead to some great conversations. We are pleased to be able to bring product and brand awareness to the attendees, answer any questions about our solution and highlight what exactly our solution can do and why it’s a worthy investment. 

The UK FinTech Mission event has struck a great balance between allowing those who want to interact frequently and giving an opportunity to those who want to gain more industry knowledge which I think too, is a unique factor of the event. 

What’s the best way, on the day, for people to reach out to you?

On the UK FinTech Mission page, there is a B2B Match service: https://uk-fintech-mission-2021.b2match.io/ 

If you search Datactics, and search for Jordan Wray you will be able to find me. Let’s connect and we can set some time aside to talk! 

*If you are interested in the live panel discussion only, please register here to receive a calendar invitation and WebEx link. 

To keep up to date with future events that Datactics is attending, visit out events page here.

The post The UK FinTech Mission has kickstarted – we will be there, come see us appeared first on Datactics.

After a successful first year, AI Con is back!

This year it’s said to be bigger and better than ever with a range of talks across AI, including AI/ML in Fintech; AI in the public sector; the impact of arts; the impact of AI on research and innovation; and how AI has caused a change in the screening industry. All these topics will be tackled by world-leading technology professionals and business leaders to unpack how AI is changing our world.  

Ahead of AI Con 2020 taking place virtually on the 3rd and 4th December, we thought it would be a good idea to sit down with two of those industry experts, Fiona and Matt, and ask them a few things. I wanted  to understand  what their involvement with AI is this year, any previous involvements they’ve had with AI Con, what they envisage to be the key takeaways, and of course, what talks they are most looking forward to engaging with themselves.    

Hi, Fiona and Matt. Perhaps to kick-off, you could tell talk a bit about why you both wanted to be involved with AI Con?  

Fiona: Hello! Well, we were involved with it last year and it was a great experience. We were involved in the session that focused on business and the applications of AI. We were asked then to pull a session together for this year, and we’ve been able to focus on the area that Datactics specialises in, which is Financial Services. 

This has given us the chance to unpack how machine learning can be used in Financial Services; we’ve tried to cover three broad areas within this session:  firstly, understanding those people who work in the financial institutions. Secondly, we will then delve into our bread-and-butter data quality & matching, and lastly the importance of data governance.  

Matt: Hi! Last year I worked with Fiona to arrange our involvement. This year, we had the chance to have more time to prepare. This meant that Fiona and I could collaborate even more so.

I particularly enjoyed approaching speakers such as Peggy and Sarah (to name but a few!). What interests me most is the application of AI and we are delighted to have contributed towards pulling together such a strong line-up.

The variety of talks too will bring a wide range of attendees!  

This is the second year. Perhaps you both could talk to me about your previous involvement with AI Con, if any, and how it has evolved?  

Fiona: Last year we discovered there was a significant appetite for this content. We have been able to expand this year’s conference over more streams by being more strategic with the messaging. We have also been able to create a session for ourselves (one that we know about and are vastly passionate and experienced in). This year, the conference is not local, it’s much more international. Even if you look at the line-up of our speakers for our session, they come from New York and Switzerland.

The International flavour offers a greater perspective, knowledge, and insight.   

Matt: I agree. I’ve been blown away by how engaged people have been. We have Andrew Jenkins, the Fintech Envoy for Northern Ireland and Gary Davidson of Tech Nation, who are keen to contribute to where they think the market is going.

The panel I am chairing is focusing on FinTechs that are scaling and exporting with a focus on why people should invest in NI technology. The event is well-prepared and timely, and I am looking forward to chairing on Thursday.  

So, Matt what will the panel you are chairing be discussing, who is on the panel?  

Matt: We are joined by Pauline Timoney, COO of Automated Intelligence; Chris Gregg, CEO and Founder of Light Year; and as I mentioned before, Andrew Jenkins, and Gary Davidson. We are going to look at the opportunities to collaborate with incubators like TechNation, the impact of COVID-19, Brexit, and FinTech investments for last year.

FinTech is a hugely growing sector, and we are excited to delve into why and explore where the sector is going next!  

Fiona, you have been one of the curators of AI Con, how has that process been?  

Fiona: It has been great! We were given the remit of FinTech and we could pick and choose what topics and who we wanted to add to the line-up. We have a very clear message. The talks are practical application-centred with a focus on trends and experience.

One of the largest Wealth Management Companies in the world is coming to speak to discuss their usage of technology, future projections, and more!  

What do you both envisage the biggest takeaways of AI Con being?  

Matt: One of the biggest takeaways is going to be the incredible, thriving NI FinTech sector.

When you look around the ecosystem, for example of the FinTech ecosystem report you can see the sheer explosion of firms and the problems being solved.    

Fiona: There will be maturity across the board, with more companies implementing these technologies.

People are increasingly thinking about Machine Learning and AI… how can we use it?

I believe there will be a skillset gap which will be a challenge; it will be a challenge for many firms to attract the talent that can implement these processes and technologies.  

To wrap up! On a personal, note, what talk(s) are you both most looking forward to?  

Matt: I am excited to hear from Sarah Gadd, Credit Suisse. Her wealth of experience will offer great insight into how they apply AI into reality. Not only are they on the cutting edge of technology but they have taken it off the ground. I am also looking forward to Peggy Tsai’s contribution.  

Fiona: From our side, Sarah and Peggy will be interesting. It’s an honour to have a speaker like Sarah Gadd. It’s brilliant to hear how they are applying this technology now in a regulated area. What are their challenges, solutions? Also, Peggy is giving time to the complexity of data, which is more important than ever before. Austin too will be unpacking AI in the arts and music sector. I am looking forward to the overall variety, calibre, and diversity of point of view that will be offered.  

Thank you both, for taking the time out of our schedules! If you haven’t got your place for AI Con 2020 reserved, there is no time like the present! You can secure your place for free here. It will be a brilliant conference. Who’s ready to learn more about AI? 

The post AI Con 2020 Interview with Dr. Fiona Browne and Matt Flenley appeared first on Datactics.

We are delighted that our very own Fiona Browne has helped to co-curate AI CON 2020. 

The second annual AI CON is taking place virtually on Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th December and will be hosted by Kainos and Aisling Events as per last year. This year’s event will be recorded live from the AI CON studio in Belfast over two days.  The event will bring together world-leading technology professionals and business leaders to discuss and examine how AI is continuing to change our world. This year’s gathering will discuss: 

• AI ML in Fintech 

• AI in the Public Sector 

• Impact of AI on Society, Arts, and Culture 

• Applied AI/Supporting AI Startups 

• AI Research and Innovation 

• AI in the Screen Industries 

AI CON will once again be a brilliant opportunity to listen and engage with professionals that range from developers to business leaders, who have led on adopting AI as a tool to build better services, products, or business operations.  

The conference is free to attend but delegates must register ahead of time. 

Find us on Linkedin, Twitter, or Facebook for the latest news or click here to contact us. 

The post AI Con 2020 | 3rd – 4th December appeared first on Datactics.

We are delighted to announce that we will be exhibiting at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2020. The festival will be running for 5 days from the 7th-11th of December. This festival is the largest Financial Technology event in the world, providing a platform for the FinTech community to connect, collaborate, and co-create. This event is also perfect for start-ups, investors, research institutes, and innovation professionals. 

The festival will include over 800+ global speakers ranging from heads of state, financial and tech leaders, policymakers, leading start-ups, and multilateral agencies – available both live and on-demand to suit your schedule.  

The goal of the festival is to help businesses to achieve their goals for 2021 and beyond. This festival offers the opportunity to meet and connect with over 60,000 attendees on the event platform using business matching functionality, attending online networking events, and scheduling 1:1 meetings.

If you want to attend and access the content from both the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) and Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH), get your passes today! 

Find us on Linkedin, Twitter, or Facebook for the latest news or click here to contact us. 

The post Singapore FinTech Festival | 7/12/20 – 11/12/20 appeared first on Datactics.

Datactics Head of Artificial Intelligence, Dr. Fiona Browne, recently contributed to the episode of FinTech Finance: Virtual Arena. Steered by Douglas MacKenzie, the interview covered the extent of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) fines currently faced by banks over the last number of years and start to unpack what we do at Datactics in relation to this topic: helping banks address their data quality, with essential solutions designed to combat fraudsters and money launderers.  

How can banks arm themselves against increasing regulatory and technological complexity?

Fiona began by highlighting how Financial Institutions face significant challenges when managing their data. However, the increase in financial regulations since the financial crisis of 2008/2009, ensuring data quality has gained in its importance, obliging institutions to have a handle on their data and make sure it is up to date. Modern data quality platforms mean that the timeliness of data can now be checked via a ‘pulse check’ to ensure that it can be used in further downstream processes and that it meets regulations.

Where does Datactics fit in to the AML arena? 

A financial institution needs to be able to verify the client that they are working with when going through the AML checks. The AML process itself is vast but at Datactics, we focus on the area of profiling data quality and matching – it is our bread and butter. Fiona stressed the importance of internal checks as well as public entity data, such as sanction and watch lists.

In a nutshell, there is a significant amount of data to check and compare and with lack ofquality data, it becomes a difficult and costly task to perform so we at Datactics, focus on data quality cleansing and matching at scale.

Why should banks look to partner, rather than building it in house? 

One of the key issues of doing this in house is not having the necessary resources to perform the required checks and adhere to the different processes in the AML pipeline. According to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), in-house checks and a lack of data are causing leading financial institutions to receive hefty fines. Fiona reiterated that when Banks bring it back to the fundamentals and get their processes right and data into order, they can then use the partner’s technology to automate and streamline these processes, which in turn speeds up the onboarding process and ensure the legislation is being met.

Why did the period of 2018/2019 have such a high number of AML breaches?

Fiona explained that many transactions go back over a decade, it takes time to identify such transactions. AML compliance is difficult to achieve and regulators know that it is challenging. The regulators are doing a better job at providing guidelines to financial institutions, enabling them to address these regulations. Fiona reaffirmed that perhaps 2018/2019 was a wakeup call that was well needed to address this issue. 

And with AML fines already at $5.6 billion this year, more than the whole of 2019, what can banks do? 

Looking at the US, where although the fines for non-compliant AML processes are not as high as 2019, there is still a substantial number of fines being issued, Fiona said that it is paramount to ensure financial institutions have the right data and the right processes in place. Although it can be considered as an administrative burden, there is real criminal activity behind the scenes, which is why AML is so important. It is vital that financial institutions get a handle on this, enabling them to also improve the experience for their clients. 

The fines will continue to be issued. Why should firms look to clean data when they just want to get to the bottom line? 

It is essential to have the building blocks in place. Data quality is key for the onboarding process, but it is also essential downstream, particularly if you are wanting to do more trend analysis. Getting the fundamentals right at the start will pay back in dividends.  

Are there any other influences that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) can have on the banks onboarding process? 

According to Fiona, there is no silver bullet. One AI/ML technique will not solve all the AML issues. It is about deploying these techniques when approaching the issues in different ways. A large part of the onboarding process is gathering data and extracting relevant information from the data set. Fiona has seen a lot of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques employed to extract the data from documents. At Datactics, we use Machine Learning in the data matching process to reduce the manual review time. ML techniques are employed in supervised and unsupervised approaches geared to pinpoint fraudulent transactions. We think that the graph databases and network analysis side of machine learning is an interesting area, we are currently exploring how it can be deployed into AML and fraud detection. 

Bonus content: In the US and Canada, one way to potentially identity fraud was to look at transactions that were over $10,000. The criminals however become increasingly savvy and utilise Machine Learning to muddy their tracks. By doing this, they can divide transactions into randomised amounts to make them appear less pertinent. As Fiona put it ‘the cat and mouse game’. 

If you are employed in the banking sector or if you must deal with large and messy datasets, you will probably face challenges derived from poor data quality, standardization, and siloed information. 

Datactics provides the tools to tackle these issues with minimum IT overhead, in a powerful and agile way. Get in touch with the self-service data quality experts today to find out how we can help.

The post How can banks arm themselves against increasing regulatory and technological complexity? – FinTech Finance appeared first on Datactics.

We started by looking at why data matching is a key part of any AML & KYC process. It’s made more complex by the different standards, languages, and levels of quality in the different data sources on which firms typically rely on. It’s expensive too: a recent Refinitiv article states that some firms are spending up to $670m each year on KYC. 

As the week went on, we looked at some of the key areas where Datactics makes a real difference in helping firms to reduce manual effort, reduce risk, and bring down the extremely high cost of client onboarding. 

We then looked at the impact of the EU’s fifth AML directive and how firms are able to automate their sanctions screening with the sanctions match engine.  

We also explored how we support efforts to reduce risk and financial crime involving the clever tech we’ve used to transliterate between character sets and perform multi-language matching. 

Finishing up, we shared our talk with the EDM Council that explored how AI can make a real difference to the story. Bringing even more predictive capabilities to human effort means that finding those edge cases, don’t have to wait until all the obvious ones have been ruled out. We also composed a piece entitled ‘Lifting the lid on the problems that Datactics solves’, if you missed it out can check it out here. 

If you missed any of the pieces we shared this week, feel free to read them on our DataBlog or on our social media platforms.  

In other news this week, our very own Head of AI, Dr Fiona Browne contributed to the FinTech Finance: Virtual Arena. This session discussed the huge AML fines faced by the banks over the last number of years.

At Datactics we are a company that helps banks gain quality data – a tool that is equipped to fight fraudsters and money launderers. Fiona was able to share her experience as Head of AI at Datactics to shed light on how banks can arm themselves sufficiently to allow them to stand up to increasing regulatory and technological complexity. 

Datactics provides the tools to tackle these issues with minimum IT overhead, in a powerful and agile way.  If you missed the session, you can watch it back on LinkedIn by following this link.  

Have a great weekend! Hope you enjoyed this week’s round-up.    

Click here for more by the author, or find us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook for the latest news. You can also read the last round up here or keep an eye out for our next one! 

The post All things AML and FinTech Finance: Virtual Arena – weekly round-up appeared first on Datactics.

Join us for a week of unmissable content and unparalleled networking at the 6th edition of FinTech Connect. Digital transformation has accelerated over the last few months and we will take this opportunity to be at the centre of this paradigm shift by hearing from, networking and engaging with all the industry’s leading players.

For more details about FinTech Connect 2020 and to register for free, click here.

Datactics Self-Service Data Quality platform empowers business users to self-serve for high-quality data, saving time, reducing costs and increasing profitability.

This is where Datactics adds rapid value to any data strategy programme. Our home-grown self-service software features many hundreds of thousands of person-hours of development in the fundamentals of data quality and matching. We provide fast results, full training and guidance, empowering business users who understand the data to measure, fix and fully leverage their data assets. 

Get your personalised quote here or download our whitepaper below:

Find us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook for the latest news. To have a conversation about how the self-service data quality platform can help you to manage your data, contact our Head of Sales, Kieran Seaward today.   

The post FinTech Connect 2020 | 30/11/20 – 04/12/20 appeared first on Datactics.

We are pleased to announce that Datactics has been selected to join Fintech 3.0, Tech Nation‘s highly specialised growth programme for the Fintech sector.

Tech Nation fuels the growth of the game-changing founders, leaders and scaling companies enabling the transformation of societies and economies alike. Each and every year, Tech Nation accepts a small number of high growth companies in the tech sphere to enter their programmes. We are delighted that we are 1 of 3 companies from Northern Ireland entering this year’s cohort, alongside Lightyear and Automated Intelligence. Together we are helping to validate the strength of the tech ecosystem within Northern Ireland. 

Gary Davidson, Entrepreneur Engagement Manager at Tech Nation said:

It brings me so much joy to announce that 10% of Tech Nation’s new Fintech 3.0 cohort is from Northern Ireland. This truly showcases the power of NI’s scaling Fintech sector & I can’t wait for Automated Intelligence, Datactics & Lightyear to start their journey with us

We are proud to be contributing to the strong tech ecosystem within Northern Ireland. Tech Nation have recently hailed Belfast as an increasingly promising spot for the technology industry, and they recently claimed that Belfast was the second-best place in the UK for tech workers to live.

Matthew Flenley, Marketing and Partnerships Manager said:

I’m delighted that Datactics will take part in this really exciting programme, and congratulations to all the other firms who are joining the cohort. The tech scene in Northern Ireland continues to thrive, and so we’re particularly delighted to be a part of this with fellow NI natives, Lightyear and Automated Intelligence. 

We’re already so impressed with the level of commitment and drive that the TechNation team has brought to the table and look forward to making the most of this prestigious programme over the coming months.

More about Tech Nation’s Fintech 3.0 program here. 

Press contact: Jamie Gordon

The post Datactics joins Tech Nation Fintech 3.0 appeared first on Datactics.

Following a major expansion, we are pleased to announce that we have ranked at number 30 in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50, a ranking of the a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in Ireland. Rankings are based on average percentage revenue growth over four years.

The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards is one of Ireland’s foremost technology award programmes.

This year marks 20 years of the programme celebrating innovation and entrepreneurship in Ireland’s indigenous technology sector.

Commenting on the company’s achievement, Stuart Harvey, Datactics CEO, said,

“This is a great tribute to everyone’s hard work at Datactics. We are delighted that our approach to self-service data quality solutions to day-to-day problems in banking and finance has been reflected in the company’s growth over the past four years, and led to being recognised as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in Ireland. We would especially like to thank our clients and partners for their willingness to engage and support us in our journey”.

Datactics specialises in class-leading, self-service data quality and matching software to ensure compliance with financial regulation, eliminate roadblocks in data management, and add value to enterprise data.

Datactics is one of 13 firms from Northern Ireland ranked in the top 50 by Deloitte.

Cumulatively, the 2019 Fast 50 winners generated approximately €3.6 billion in total annual revenues in 2018.

The average revenue of companies featured in the ranking was approximately €70 million, while the average growth rate of the companies over the last four years was 347%.

There are 18 new companies listed on the ranking.

Announcing the winners of the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 programme, Peter Allen, Partner, Deloitte, said:

“Since 2000, the awards have showcased an innovative and diverse range of technology companies, and this year is no different. Over this time, we have seen local technology companies capitalise on the opportunities presented by global changes. We’re delighted to be supporting these companies and recognising them with these awards. Over the last 20 years, the Fast 50 has become the benchmark of success for Irish tech companies.”

The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards took place in Dublin on 25 October 2019. Keynote speaker on the night was Mark Casey, Global Leader of Telecoms, Media & Entertainment at Deloitte.

Click here for the latest news from Datactics, or find us on Linkedin, Twitter or Facebook

The post Datactics ranked 30th in Deloitte Technology Fast 50 2019 appeared first on Datactics.

Entity Match Engine for Customer Onboarding. Challenges and facts from EU banking implementations. 

Customer onboarding is one of the most critical entry points of new data for a bank’s counterparty information. References and interactions with internal systems, externally sourced information, KYC processes, regulatory reporting and risk aggregation are all impacted by the quality of information that is fed into the organisation from the onboarding stage.

In times of automation and development of FinTech applications, the onboarding process remains largely manual. Organisations typically aim at minimising errors by means of human validation, often tasking an off-shore team to manually check and sign-off on the information for the new candidate counterparty. Professionals with experience in data management can relate to this equation: “manual data entry = mistakes”.

There are a variety of things that can go wrong when trying to add a new counterparty to an internal system. The first step is typically to ensure that a counterparty is not already present: onboarding officers rely on a mix of name & address information, vendor codes and open industry codes (e.g. the Legal Entity Identifier) to verify this. However, inaccurate search criteria, outdated or missing information in the internal systems and the lack of advanced search tools create the potential for problems in the process – an existing counterparty can easily get duplicated, when it should have been updated.

Datactics’ Entity Match Engine provides onboarding officers with the tools to avoid this scenario, both on Legal Entities’ and Individuals’ data. With advanced fuzzy logic and clustering of data from multiple internal and external sources, Match Engine avoids the build-up of duplication caused by mistakes, mismatches or constraints of existing search technology in the onboarding process.

Another common issue caused by manual onboarding processes is the lack of standardisation in the entry data. This creates problems downstream, reducing the value that the data can bring to core banking activities, decision making and the capacity to aggregate data for regulatory reporting in a cost-effective way.

Entity Match Engine has pre-built connectivity into the most comprehensive open and proprietary sources of counterparty information, such as Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, GLEIF, Open Corporates, Companies House, etc. These sources are pre-consolidated by the engine and are used to provide the onboarding officer with a standardised suggestion of what the counterparty information should look like, comprehensive of the most up-to-date industry and vendor identifiers.

“Measure and ensure data quality at source” is a best practice and increasingly a data management mantra. The use of additional technology in the onboarding phase is precisely intended as a control mechanism for one of the most error-prone sources of information for financial institutions.

Luca Rovesti is Presales R&D Manager at Datactics

The post Who are you really doing business with? appeared first on Datactics.