The UK payments industry is undergoing an unprecedented transformation, driven by the twin engines of growing adoption of technology and changing consumer expectations.
This has led to a race to launch innovative new payment products, services and business models to meet growing customer demand.

Equifax Inc., (NYSE: EFX) a global data, analytics and technology company has acquired PayNet, a company that provides commercial credit risk underwriting and management solutions to online and alternative finance lenders, and commercial finance and leasing companies in the U.S. and Canadian markets.

AxiomSL, the leading global provider of regulatory-reporting, risk and data-management solutions, today announced that it has received ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification (known as ISO 27001). The certification covers AxiomSL’s core software and ControllerView® flagship product, its system development, professional and client support services and company operations. It also covers AxiomSL’s cloud-based solutions, operations and client support.

Dozens of financial services job roles will see much of their work taken by data analytics and automation in the next few years, according to a new report from Singapore, which is preparing for the radical workforce shift with a new career training programme focused on emerging technology roles.

The securities regulatory authorities in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Québec and Saskatchewan (participating jurisdictions) today announced a co-operation agreement with the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Firco Automated Alert Reduction increases the accuracy and relevance of matches, helping reduce manual review times and curb the escalating costs of compliance

Accuity, the leading provider of financial crime compliance, payments, and Know Your Customer (KYC) solutions, has announced its AI-driven account screening capability, ‘Firco Automated Alert Reduction’, which increases the level of accuracy in detecting and evaluating screening matches during the KYC process. It has also been optimised to integrate seamlessly with WorldCompliance™ data to expand its visibility into sanctions, politically exposed person (PEP) and adverse media lists, in support of compliance requirements.

This new module augments existing financial crime filters and alleviates a significant burden for organisations with large-scale compliance operations that rely heavily on human operators to review potential risks. Risks associated with customer accounts can include exposure to illicit financial activity, sanctioned entities, PEPs and reputationally exposed persons (REPs).

Existing matching technology compares customer data to the entities listed on regulatory watch lists, but until now, has not been sophisticated enough to eliminate the abundance of ‘false positive’ results produced, with the necessary level of accuracy. Manually assessing alerts to determine quality, potential risk, and whether further investigation is required, has been a significant drain on compliance resources and a contributor to the rising costs of compliance across the industry.

According to the recent Chartis Research Financial Crime Risk Management Systems: AML and Watchlist Monitoring report, “the success of an AML system is usually measured by the amount of time it saves and its reduction of false positives.”

Europe's financial supervisory authorities have advised against the introduction of a coherent cyber resilience testing framework for the continent's market participants and infrastructures - at least in the short term.