fintech

Armalytix, an award-winning fintech company that assists firms in assessing their clients’ financial position for compliance, affordability, and more, has joined forces with Birchall Blackburn Law, a renowned conveyancing law firm.

With a proven track record in transforming financial data collection across various sectors, Armalytix has developed a cutting-edge platform that simplifies the Source of Funds (SoF) verification process, tackling long-standing issues in legal financial processing.

The collaboration has led to significant operational improvements, reducing SoF verification from weeks to just an average of 4 days. Notably, 65% of reports are now returned within 48 hours, marking a major advancement for legal firms previously burdened with time-consuming manual financial checks.

“Not only did we work together to meet our main objective to streamline and secure our SoF verification process, but the depth of our collaboration meant we also identified other daily challenges and came up with innovative solutions,” says Andrea Fairweather, Partner at Birchall Blackburn Law.

The partnership has delivered the following results:

• High client satisfaction, with 90% rating the platform 4 star or above
• Full staff adoption across Birchall Blackburn Law
• Minimal additional support, with fewer than 1 in 10 reports needing follow-up
• Measurable reduction in administrative workload

Paul Pickering, Head of Compliance at Birchall Blackburn Law, highlights the key benefits, “Having clients’ funds analysed and presented in a clear, comprehensive report allows our conveyancers to spend more time evaluating data and reduces the risk of overlooking important factors.”

Tailored training and a collaborative approach were crucial to the partnership’s success. By introducing Armalytix 101 – a bi-weekly training session – and working closely with different teams, the technology was smoothly integrated, addressing specific needs across the business.

The partnership goes beyond simply gathering basic financial information. Through regular Innovation Days, Armalytix continues to develop features like ‘Large Items Insights’, which helps identify and mitigate potential financial risks more effectively.

Tom Lyes, Head of Legal and Property Services at Armalytix, said, “We’re not just providing a tool, but a comprehensive solution that transforms how legal teams work with financial data. Our partnership with Birchall Blackburn Law demonstrates the powerful potential of technology to streamline complex financial processes.”

In the dynamic world of fintech, where innovation and regulation intersect, few voices carry the weight of expertise like Farnoush Farsiar’s. As a distinguished authority in the field, her insights are crucial for navigating the evolving landscape of fintech. In this article, we delve into the regulatory changes in fintech for 2024, exploring opportunities and challenges.

AI’s Dominance in 2024: A Cybersecurity Odyssey

Farnoush Farsiar emphasizes that the constant influx of new technologies introduces new risks for financial institutions. Open banking, GenAI, and increased partnerships with tech vendors provide benefits but also expose firms to potential vulnerabilities and cyber threats.

In 2024, financial services providers face challenges in adapting to the evolving compliance landscape associated with GenAI, while operational resilience requirements are expanding, creating additional compliance hurdles. Farsiar adds that sustaining customer trust is vital in this dynamic risk environment, making it a top priority for all financial services providers.

Third-Party Tracking Technologies: Under Regulatory Scrutiny

In 2024, third-party tracking tech faces intense regulatory scrutiny, especially for sensitive personal data. Regulators are closely examining companies’ use of third-party tracking technologies, such as pixels, cookies, and software development kits, particularly when involving sensitive personal data for purposes like profiling or advertising. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission recently cautioned tax preparation companies, insisting on affirmative express consent before sharing financial, marital, or family information for advertising.

Farnoush Farsiar says that lawmakers have echoed concerns, calling for investigations into potential privacy law violations by tax-prep firms using tracking technologies. These developments signal increased scrutiny on fintechs sharing financial or transaction data for advertising, drawing parallels with enforcement actions in the medical data transmission realm. Farsiar also admits that regulators may soon extend their focus to behavioral advertising practices within the fintech sector.

Financial Data Rights: A Rising Tide in 2024

2024 is also the year of financial data rights, says Farsiar. The CFPB is expected to issue its final rule implementing Section 1033 in the fall. It also impacts on the fintech industry.

The CFPB is considering mandating fintechs to provide consumers with enhanced access and portability rights to their financial data. The proposed rule would apply to various entities, including financial institutions, card issuers, digital wallet providers, and other companies with data on covered financial products and services.

In case of successful implementation, the rule would compel these entities to furnish consumers with specific transaction, balance, upcoming bill, and other personal data upon request. Consumers could also authorize third-party companies, including competitors, to request and use this data.

For CFPB, this initiative fosters competition by enabling seamless switching between financial service providers.

Regulatory Winds in the Crypto Space

According to Farsiar, the global outlook for blockchain technology remains positive despite an extended crypto winter marked by the unexpected collapse of major firms like FTX, Blockfi, Celsius, and Voyager.

However, the expert says that 2024 still expects key use cases like border transactions and credit scoring to gain global traction. At the same time, financial institutions are focusing on blockchain pilots, particularly in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and interoperability.

As the crypto industry faces challenges of diminished investor trust, regulatory clarity is necessary to restore confidence and facilitate mainstream growth. Additionally, the involvement of traditional financial institutions and wealth management firms in offering new services related to digital assets could further boost investor confidence in the cryptocurrency space.

Farnoush Farsiar’s Conclusions: Navigating the Regulatory Landscape

In conclusion, Farnoush Farsiar’s analysis of the 2024 fintech regulatory landscape unveils a dynamic interplay of challenges and opportunities. From the impact of GenAI to evolving compliance demands and the ascent of financial data rights, successfully navigating these intricacies demands a nuanced approach, blending innovation with strict adherence to regulatory frameworks. As we move forward, it remains to be seen how events will unfold for the fintech industry in 2024.

Fintech Fringe, an official London Tech Week Fringe Event, today launches its inaugural programme that aims to accelerate the growth of homegrown and overseas fintech scaleups in the UK. The event takes place from June 12th-15th in London in partnership with Department for Business and Trade, Barclays Rise, Fintech Alliance, Innovate Finance, Level39, London & Partners, and Tech Passport, as well as a host of fintech giants and luminaries.

With recent turbulence in the market from the SVB shakeout and the tremor effects from Brexit still rippling through the UK economy, it has been a challenging time for the UK fintech sector with increased competition globally to attract the best fintech businesses. Despite these challenges the UK remains the nucleus of European fintech, with British fintechs attracting more funding than all their EMEA counterparts combined in 2022 (KPMG, 2023).

To showcase the UK as the best place for global fintech investment, Fintech Fringe is uniquely focused on providing solutions for high growth fintech scaleups looking to expand in the UK. This includes overseas scaleups looking to assess the UK as their next key market for international expansion and UK based fintech scaleups looking to access the expertise and support they need to fuel their next phase of growth.

The four-day programme in collaboration with event partners CCgroup, co:cubed, Fintech B2B Marketing, Harrington Starr, Streets Consulting and Women of Fintech will cover:

•       UK market insight – The inside track on the UK as a global hub and why companies choose to set-up and scale here.
•       Scale and growth – Fintech scaleup successes and failures, sales and partnership tactics, growth hacks from practitioners and customer insights from banks and financial institutions.
•       Regulation – Expert insight into the challenges and opportunities around emerging regulations and policies in the UK.
•       Showcase – Scale-ups can meet leading investors and potential customers, with one of 20 fintechs selected to showcase their business.

Designed to be pragmatic in focus, fintech scale-ups will be able to meet leading investors and potential customers, gather insights from the successes and failures of industry peers, and learn from leading industry experts.

“The UK and London has long held the reputation as the best place in the world to start and scale a FinTech business, and we’re delighted to be bringing the FinTech Fringe to life during London Tech Week,” said Janine Hirt, CEO of Innovate Finance. “Connecting the ecosystem and offering further support to scaling FinTech businesses at a time when the spotlight is on the tech sector at large. FinTech Fringe will bring together industry, government and regulatory voices to support the scaling journey of some of our most promising businesses and encourage global innovative companies to expand their presence in the UK.”

“London is renowned for its thriving culture of innovation and its fintech sector is no exception. In 2022 alone, London-based fintech companies attracted more investment than any other global fintech hub,” said Janet Coyle, Managing Director for Business Growth, London & Partners. “I am thrilled that alongside an exciting programme of events at London Tech Week, scaling fintech companies now have the opportunity to join Fintech Fringe to meet investors, customers and gather valuable insights. I’m looking forward to welcoming scaling fintechs throughout the week as we celebrate one of London’s most promising sectors.”

“The UK is regarded as a global leader in fintech, but recently that position has come under threat,” said Calypso Harland, Founder, Fintech Fringe. “Critical to maintaining leadership is ensuring the UK remains the best place to scale your fintech business. This is why we’ve created this unique event that has a dedicated focus on pragmatic ways to scale fintech businesses to the next level. With some of the biggest names in the industry alongside the right blend of knowledge, connections, and advice, I believe we’ve created a programme that will deliver real value to fintechs in high-growth mode.”

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