Strengthening the RTA’s board with the Bank of Queensland, plus welcoming Microsoft’s globally leading AI expertise, are significant milestones in the Association’s mission to position APAC as a global centre for RegTech excellence. Since establishing in March 2017, 62 organisations have joined the RTA community; including regulated entities, service providers and technologists, to create a robust ‘for industry, by industry’ approach to accelerating RegTech.

Commenting on the two additions to the RTA, chief executive Deborah Young, said:
“Microsoft’s membership of the Association and Bank of Queensland committing a member of its leadership team to the board are significant signals that RegTech is on the rise. The capabilities these appointments allow underlines our readiness to accelerate a new compliance ecosystem for the financial sector - and subsequently for other regulated industries. Governments will also be a big buyer of RegTech in the future as they seek to drive productivity and reduce red tape.”

The pace and scope of regulatory change has risen dramatically in the digital economy. In 2017, 56,321 regulatory alerts were recorded from more than 900 regulatory bodies, averaging 216[1] updates a day - or one every nine minutes. Compliance reporting, along with policies, procedures and monitoring must stay under constant review to stay ahead of issues, such as fraud and money laundering. Increasingly, AI is being used to automatically track, and analyse regulatory developments, enabling regulatory teams to rapidly evolve the risk profiles of their organisations.

Duncan Taylor, Director, Financial Services, Microsoft, said:

“The financial sector faces digital disruption, constant innovation, increased regulatory scrutiny and changing business models. As a leader in the AI space, our role at Microsoft is to help regulators and regulated entities to deploy AI as a solution for these issues. The RTA is a vital point of collaboration for the industry and a bridge for those discussions. We’re excited to be joining their membership at this crucial time for the future of Australian compliance.”

Peter Deans is currently Chief Risk Officer (CRO) at Bank of Queensland Limited (BOQ). Within the bank’s executive team, Peter has played a key role in reshaping both the business and risk management strategies. Peter joined BOQ in 2012 and has driven fundamental change in the Bank’s risk management frameworks, processes and culture; actively fostering the adoption of new technologies in the risk and compliance activities.

Peter Deans, Chief Risk Officer, Bank of Queensland Limited (BOQ), said:

“I am excited to be joining the RegTech Association Board and playing a role in developing the RegTech sector in Australia - and seeing businesses, here and overseas, harness new and emerging technologies.”

Deborah Young who was appointed as CEO in June of this year is delighted with Peter's appointment bringing the board to a total of five industry representatives. Peter's broad experience as a CRO and an experienced financial services executive will help the RTA steer its strategic course over the next three years. Strengthening the board and attracting global technology brands to its membership is part of the RTA’s mission to position APAC as a global centre for RegTech excellence and to accelerate adoption of RegTech.

The RegTech Association’s second flagship event, ACCELERATERegTech 2019 is due to take place on the 6-7 March 2019. It will It will bring together 250+ regulators, regulated entities, RegTechs, government, technology firms, allied associations, professional services and members of the financial services community together to examine the greatest regulatory and compliance challenges.