No Result
View All Result
SUBSCRIBE | NO FEES, NO PAYWALLS
MANAGE MY SUBSCRIPTION
NEWSLETTER
Corporate Compliance Insights
  • Home
  • About
    • About CCI
    • CCI Magazine
    • Writing for CCI
    • Career Connection
    • NEW: CCI Press – Book Publishing
    • Advertise With Us
  • Explore Topics
    • See All Articles
    • Compliance
    • Ethics
    • Risk
    • FCPA
    • Governance
    • Fraud
    • Internal Audit
    • HR Compliance
    • Cybersecurity
    • Data Privacy
    • Financial Services
    • Well-Being at Work
    • Leadership and Career
    • Opinion
  • Vendor News
  • Library
    • Download Whitepapers & Reports
    • Download eBooks
    • New: Living Your Best Compliance Life by Mary Shirley
    • New: Ethics and Compliance for Humans by Adam Balfour
    • 2021: Raise Your Game, Not Your Voice by Lentini-Walker & Tschida
    • CCI Press & Compliance Bookshelf
  • Podcasts
    • Great Women in Compliance
    • Unless: The Podcast (Hemma Lomax)
  • Research
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming
  • Events
  • Subscribe
Jump to a Section
  • At the Office
    • Ethics
    • HR Compliance
    • Leadership & Career
    • Well-Being at Work
  • Compliance & Risk
    • Compliance
    • FCPA
    • Fraud
    • Risk
  • Finserv & Audit
    • Financial Services
    • Internal Audit
  • Governance
    • ESG
    • Getting Governance Right
  • Infosec
    • Cybersecurity
    • Data Privacy
  • Opinion
    • Adam Balfour
    • Jim DeLoach
    • Mary Shirley
    • Yan Tougas
No Result
View All Result
Corporate Compliance Insights
Home Featured

FINRA’s Move to Foster Regtech

Benefits for Compliance Teams

by Marc Gilman
February 20, 2019
in Featured, Financial Services
man in suit using virtual screen with regulatory compliance app

Theta Lake’s Marc Gilman reviews some of the key points from a recent FINRA report that resonate for financial institutions and regtech providers.

The end of 2018 found the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) busy issuing guidance on several fronts, including the release of a report on “Technology Based Innovations for Regulatory Compliance (“RegTech”) in the Securities Industry” in September. The report highlights the opportunities and risks financial services firms face in selecting and implementing emerging technologies for regulatory and compliance purposes. From the perspective of regulatory technology (regtech) providers, the openness of FINRA’s open approach to regtech is encouraging. 

FINRA noted that nearly 20 percent of financial services firms have implemented some type of regtech and described several areas where emerging regtech can assist firms in oversight and risk management. FINRA observed that artificial intelligence, natural language processing and biometrics “present great opportunities for firms to develop and use applications that may enhance existing compliance at reduced costs.” A firm’s decision to implement a regtech solution will require an analysis of how it solves a specific compliance problem and aligns to its existing business and oversight processes to result in meaningful efficiencies.

Functionally, surveillance and monitoring are areas where regtech is gaining “substantial traction,” per FINRA. For example, regtech tools may allow firms to move from traditional lexicon-based search and supervision methodologies toward risk-based approaches to these practices. That’s an area where continuously improving tools with machine learning and AI tools can do things like identifying potential high-risk regulatory and security issues in voice and video content to facilitate more effective compliance reviews. These types of tool capabilities can achieve what FINRA outlines as one of the key goals of a successful regtech solution: a technology that can be used to “obtain more accurate alerts and enhance compliance and supervisory staff efficiencies.” Throughout the regtech statement, FINRA makes it clear that these efficiencies — reducing time spent on manual reviews or engaged in aggregating data — are essential benefits of a regtech solution.

FINRA emphasizes that innovative approaches to problem-solving through technology are not limited to regtechs themselves. Regulators like the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have made their rulebooks machine-readable to encourage the development of interactive technologies that can be built around open data sets. We see FINRA’s own Innovation Outreach Initiative as playing a key role in the adoption of regtech solutions. FINRA’s engagement with member firms, vendors and the public are already leading to collaborative, impactful guidance and the evolution of new technologies to solve compliance problems.

Finally, FINRA offers implementation suggestions to broker-dealers, advising them of important considerations for selecting and deploying regtech applications. Broadly, FINRA observes that regtech allows for more seamless integration of compliance into existing firm protocols, “making rule compliance part of the business process.” Furthermore, from a vendor selection perspective, FINRA highlights that a regtech’s understanding of the legal and practical implications of broker-dealer and other relevant rule sets are critical. Successful regtech vendors are drawing on subject matter expertise across the legal, compliance and information security domains to ensure their software meets regulatory and industry expectations around supervision and security – for example, proactively leveraging FINRA requirements on electronic communications supervision (Rule 3110) and advertising and marketing (Rule 2210) to design mechanisms to identify and escalate potential compliance violations, as well as ensure that subsequent reporting and archiving of evidentiary content is consistent with the books and records obligations (Rule 4511).

All regtech providers and the Financial Institutions that use regtech should be encouraged by FINRA’s active participation in developing a roadmap for innovation in the regtech space. In fact, at FINRA’s RegTech Conference panel, participants discussed the issues above, as well as the importance of identity management and validation, the continued emphasis on understanding pertinent regulatory requirements and tips for the selection and deployment of regtech software. In light of the September report and the comments from the Conference last week, we should all be looking forward to continuing the dialogue in the year ahead.


Tags: Artificial Intelligence (AI)Emerging TechnologiesFINRAMachine LearningRegTech
Previous Post

Data Retention: “Do I Really Need to Keep This?”

Next Post

Thomson Reuters: The State of Regulatory Reform

Marc Gilman

Marc Gilman

Marc Gilman is General Counsel and VP of Compliance at Theta Lake, where he advises on technology, privacy and product strategy. Marc is also an adjunct professor focusing on compliance at Fordham Law and has 15 years of law, financial services and IT experience as a litigator at Schiff Hardin LLP and in-house at Morgan Stanley. His practice includes a diverse set of technology-related regulatory issues, such as information management, voice and multimedia recording, cybersecurity, SEC and FINRA regulation, GDPR and electronic communications platforms.

Related Posts

robot waiting for job interview

If AI Can Easily Game Hiring Processes, Maybe It’s Time to Rethink What You’re Looking For

by Vera Cherepanova
July 15, 2025

Using AI to prepare for an interview is OK, but what about using it to perform?

nurse holding chart

Data Privacy at the Crossroads of AI & Life Sciences: US & EU Perspectives

by Marijn Storm, Katherine Wang and Joshua Fattal
July 15, 2025

Regulators and enforcers are watching how healthcare companies use advanced tools

photo collage text messages

Can AI Streamline E-Communications Compliance Program Reviews?

by Jonny Frank, Nathan Gibson, Michael Costa and Kashif Sheikh
July 14, 2025

Where manual reviews take weeks, AI can rapidly compare policy documentation to assessment criteria and flag control gaps

news roundup data grungy

Most Organizations Adopting AI Without Strategy as Risks Mount

by Staff and Wire Reports
July 11, 2025

Leading firms leverage AI across governance functions; privacy deletion requests surge 82%; employees struggle with AI-powered threats; payment system attacks...

Next Post
Thomson Reuters: The State of Regulatory Reform

Thomson Reuters: The State of Regulatory Reform

No Result
View All Result

Privacy Policy | AI Policy

Founded in 2010, CCI is the web’s premier global independent news source for compliance, ethics, risk and information security. 

Got a news tip? Get in touch. Want a weekly round-up in your inbox? Sign up for free. No subscription fees, no paywalls. 

Follow Us

Browse Topics:

  • CCI Press
  • Compliance
  • Compliance Podcasts
  • Cybersecurity
  • Data Privacy
  • eBooks Published by CCI
  • Ethics
  • FCPA
  • Featured
  • Financial Services
  • Fraud
  • Governance
  • GRC Vendor News
  • HR Compliance
  • Internal Audit
  • Leadership and Career
  • On Demand Webinars
  • Opinion
  • Research
  • Resource Library
  • Risk
  • Uncategorized
  • Videos
  • Webinars
  • Well-Being
  • Whitepapers

© 2025 Corporate Compliance Insights

Welcome to CCI. This site uses cookies. Please click OK to accept. Privacy Policy
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • About CCI
    • CCI Magazine
    • Writing for CCI
    • Career Connection
    • NEW: CCI Press – Book Publishing
    • Advertise With Us
  • Explore Topics
    • See All Articles
    • Compliance
    • Ethics
    • Risk
    • FCPA
    • Governance
    • Fraud
    • Internal Audit
    • HR Compliance
    • Cybersecurity
    • Data Privacy
    • Financial Services
    • Well-Being at Work
    • Leadership and Career
    • Opinion
  • Vendor News
  • Library
    • Download Whitepapers & Reports
    • Download eBooks
    • New: Living Your Best Compliance Life by Mary Shirley
    • New: Ethics and Compliance for Humans by Adam Balfour
    • 2021: Raise Your Game, Not Your Voice by Lentini-Walker & Tschida
    • CCI Press & Compliance Bookshelf
  • Podcasts
    • Great Women in Compliance
    • Unless: The Podcast (Hemma Lomax)
  • Research
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming
  • Events
  • Subscribe

© 2025 Corporate Compliance Insights