PA Consulting supports FCA and Bank of England

PA Consulting has partnered with Suade Labs to support the Financial Conduct Authority and Bank of England on reviewing its Digital Regulatory Reporting initiative. The firms worked to provide technical solutions to the digital scheme’s goals, while gaining valuable insights for the project via a series of pilots.

The City’s regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has faced mounting pressure in recent times, amid suggestions that it had failed to protect customers of the financial services industry. As the organisation looks to crack down on financial crime, it has tapped consultants to help review the Bank of England’s Digital Regulatory Reporting (DRR) initiative.

According to the recent Bank of England's 'Future of Finance Report', regulatory reporting costs the UK industry between £2 billion and £4.5 billion per year, and the full compliance challenge is much greater. The DRR is an initiative in the effort to reduce this burden through using emerging technologies – including blockchain, machine learning and semantic technologies – to digitise and automate the end-to-end regulatory reporting process.

As well as making it more efficient for all participants in the market, DRR has the potential to reduce regulatory reporting costs by up to 35%.

With the aim of reviewing progress and potential, PA Consulting was drafted in to examine the scheme during its pilot phases. PA, which has a long-standing relationship with the FCA and Bank of England, enlisted London-based financial technology firm Suade Labs, for technical support to provide assurance during the work.

Alexander McGill, project lead at PA Consulting commented, “We are really excited to be assisting the FCA and Bank of England on an innovative initiative that will transform the processing of regulatory data. The ambition and scope of DRR are unrivalled across the globe, demonstrating the UK regulators’ continued commitment to innovation. Our deep expertise and focus on RegTech, evidenced by our recent publication with TheCityUK on Fintech regulation, meant we were a natural partner for the DRR project.”

PA and Suade worked to align regulatory reporting initiatives across the regulator, while developing an operating model which was inclusive for all market participants; and sought a technical solution which provided early benefits. The resulting Digital Regulatory Reporting report details the initiative in full, and includes PA’s complete set of recommendations from its work during the pilots.

Murat Abur, CTO at Suade Labs added, “We are delighted to have been involved in this project which shows the FCA’s dedication to digital supervision and cements them as being one of the most forward-thinking regulators globally. It also lines up with our responsibility as Global Innovators for the World Economic Forum and its commitment to Improving the State of the World. Suade Labs are very excited to assist in shaping the future of regulatory reporting.”