During the three-month fintech accelerator programme, which runs Jan. 2 - March 22, RegTechs and other fintech start-ups will be partnered with executives from banks and insurers to fine-tune and develop their technologies and business models.

Accenture launched the RegTech stream in response to an increased pool of start-ups offering solutions for compliance in a year in which the financial services industry faces unprecedented levels of regulation. Among the new regulations this year are the revised Payments Services Directive (PSD2), which requires banks to make customer data available to third parties, with the customer’s consent; the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II), which went into effect last week — all before structural banking reforms, with ringfencing, are implemented in January 2019.

The 20 companies on this year’s shortlist of innovative startups come from the U.K., Israel, Croatia and South Korea, offering technology solutions for many pressing business issues, including:

• aiding and automating compliance processes, using analytics and robotics;
• detecting financial crime and fraud, using artificial intelligence;
• helping insurers predict and price cyber risk;
• ensuring the security of payments and digital identity through blockchain solutions; and
• developing financial management platforms across connected devices.

“The risk of non-compliance is what keeps financial boards awake at night,” said Julian Skan, executive sponsor of Accenture’s Fintech Innovation Lab London. “As the drive for better customer experience and lower unit costs pushes data into the cloud, the price of getting things wrong has risen. It’s a pivotal moment for technology solutions to help banks and insurers not just to meet the needs of regulators, but make the most of the digital economy.

“Above all, financial firms know they need to improve their productivity, particularly in the UK economy, and innovations can be the lightbulb moment for banks and insurers to operate more effectively and deliver better results. This year’s cohorts have shown how start-ups are learning to focus on problems that can be solved and to understand what they need to learn from incumbents who are facing the challenges of meeting digital customer expectations with legacy infrastructure.”

More than 270 start-ups from 42 countries applied to this year’s program, with the shortlisted start-ups being mentored by the program’s biggest-ever cohort of financial services executives.

Partners come from over 32 financial institutions including: AIB, AXA, BAML, Citi, Credit Suisse, Direct Line, DNB, Ergo, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Intesa Sanpaolo, JPMC, Legal and General, Lloyds Banking Group, LV=, Morgan Stanley, MS Amlin, Nationwide, Nordea, OP, Post Office Management Service, RBS, RSA, Santander, Societe Generale, Towergate, TSB, UBI, UBS, XL Catlin, Zurich.

Dan Zinkin, a managing director at JP Morgan Chase, said, "Financial firms have an important role in collaborating with start-ups to develop new technologies that can transform our industry. We must keep ahead of a rapidly changing world and keep striving to innovate for our customers and improving our services. I am thrilled to be a part of a program dedicated to bringing financial firms and entrepreneurs together to navigate the future of the industry."

Shortlisted start-ups listed by financial services sector

Investment Banking & Asset Management
• Issufy
• PrimaryBid
• Traderion
• TransFICC
• OweMe

Retail Banking
• Curl
• Onedox
• Smartcalling

Insurtech
• AssetVault
• MyDRO
• Optalitix
• RiskAPP

Tech4Tech
• Blocko
• DreamQuark
• Memgraph
• Warwick Analytics

RegTech
• Cognitiv+
• Regnosys
• Safescribe
• Waymark

Eight of the 20 shortlisted startups will go on to present to venture capitalists and financial-industry executives at the program’s Graduation Day on March 22.

Accenture and a dozen major banks launched the FinTech Innovation Lab London in 2012, with support from the city’s mayor and other government bodies. Since its launch, 56 start-ups have participated in the London Lab, securing more than 50 contracts with global banks and creating more than 800 jobs.

The London Lab is modelled on a similar program that Accenture co-founded in 2010 with the Partnership Fund for New York City, the US$150 million investment arm of the Partnership for New York City. In 2014, Accenture launched FinTech Innovation Labs in Asia-Pacific and Dublin. Globally, the Labs’ alumni companies have raised more than US$863 million in financing after participating in the program.