The Financial Conduct Authority is preparing to run its second TechSprint event, a two-day app development challenge on the theme of 'unlocking regulatory compliance'.
The event, which kicks off Wednesday morning at PA Consulting's Innovation Centre in Cambridge, will see 100 developers and 30 organisations work to build a prototype or proof-of-concept application that could help to streamline regulatory reporting and improve firms’ understanding of compliance requirements.
Participants include financial services firms, academics, large technology firms and fintech start-ups, including Accenture, Axis Corporate, Barclays, Bearing Point, ClauseMatch, Credit Suisse, Dassault Systèmes, Government Office for Science, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Institute of International Finance, JWG, Monzo, PA Consulting, PwC, Santander, Suade, and Wolters Kluwer, as well as post graduate students from UCL and Cambridge University.
"Technology plays a fundamental and increasingly pivotal role in delivering innovative financial products and services and the FCA is committed to fostering innovation to promote effective competition in the interests of consumers," says the watchdog in a statement. "We have a particular interest in working with those involved in developing technologies to improve regulatory compliance, reporting and data sharing known as 'RegTech'."
At the FCA's first TechSprint event in April, teams of developers worked on ideas for improving access to financial services, a number of which have since moved into commercial production.
"Our TechSprint events allow us to engage with technology providers and users and to learn about developing or adapting technologies," says the FCA. "To our knowledge, our April 2016 TechSprint was the first event of its kind to be held globally by a regulator and was a success in that three of the ideas generated at the event are now being explored commercially as products to bring to market."