Ascent adds Australian regulators ASIC and APRA to its AI-driven compliance platform

Regulatory compliance company Ascent continues its winning streak by expanding its coverage of Australian laws.

Hot on the heels of having ended 2019 by signing a deal with a major global bank, Ascent is now expanding its regulatory scope Down Under by adding the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to its roster.

The addition of the two regulators to its artificial intelligence-powered compliance platform will enable it to better help financial firms in Australia to more easily obey regulations under supervision of the two watchdogs.

That includes new laws like the Banking Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR) and the British Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR).

Other new regulations now covered by Ascent includes the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (ASIC Act), the Business Names Registration Act 2011, the Corporations Act 2001 (Corporations Act) and the Superannuation (Resolution of Complaints) Act 1993.

“We are continually monitoring the global regulatory landscape and have witnessed increasingly strong demand for RegTech in the Australian market,” said Jeff Heine, chief revenue officer with Ascent.

“We are very pleased to make these updates to our offering. It is absolutely mission critical that Australian financial institutions pay close attention to their obligations under ASIC and APRA, and Ascent’s AI-driven approach can play a key role in protecting firms from risk and reputational damage. And it’s not only firm-level risk that needs to be accounted for; executives must now be cognisant of their personal liability for compliance failures as well due to BEAR and similar legislation around the world.”

The news comes after a year where Ascent bagged a $19.3m Series B funding round, added several British regulators to its compliance platform and was named by RegTech Analyst’s as one of the 100 most innovative RegTech companies in the world, which earned it a place on the coveted REGTECH100 list.

Ascent’s leadership is also bullish about 2020. It said that 2020 was “looking to be another banner year for Ascent” when RegTech Analyst interviewed the company about where the enterprise saw itself and the wider RegTech industry going  in the new year.

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