RegTech is an exciting and growing industry in Europe, dominated by UK firms, and we are delighted to be one of them

This month, we were honoured to be named as one of the world’s most innovative financial technology solution providers by specialist research firm RegTech Analyst.

Every year, RegTech Analyst releases its RegTech 100 list, which recognizes the world’s 100 most pioneering companies that are transforming compliance, risk management and cybersecurity and SmartSearch has been named as one of those firms for the second year running.

Last year, RegTech Analyst produced a long list of 416 and we were on the final 100 voted by a panel of industry experts. But this year, it was an even bigger achievement as 824 companies were longlisted and we still made the top 100.

And the other really positive thing about this year’s list is that Europe, and particularly the UK is really leading the way. Of the 100 companies in the final list, Europe and North America dominate with 60 and 29 representatives respectively. And of the 60 European companies on the list, 30 were from the UK, compared to 26 last year, which shows just how dominant the UK is in this sector.

And, thanks to the emergence of a thriving global RegTech, companies from another 21 countries, including Ireland, Switzerland, Singapore, India and Luxembourg.

According to Mariyan Dimitrov, head of research at RegTech Analyst the RegTEch industry as a whole has seen huge growth in the last two years, and as banks and financial institutions grapple with the unrelenting pace of regulatory change across all jurisdictions it will only increase further.

He said the impact of the most innovative RegTech companies will be measured in billions of dollars over the next few years and that the explosion of the industry and therefore, the increased competition, made this year’s process to identify the leading 100 companies in the RegTech space even more difficult last year.

With that in mind, we are understandably thrilled to have been recognized as a pioneer in our field. We have worked really hard over the past seven years to develop a platform which is constantly innovating in order to stay one step ahead of the ever increasing and complicated anti-money laundering and fraud regulations.

And as a result of our constant innovation, our multi-award winning platform now has more than 3,000 customers and 35,000 users, including 1 in 4 of the top 200 law firms and 1 in 3 of the top 100 accountancy practices.

And in fact, demand for the platform is now so high, more than 50 new clients are signing up every month. The fact that the SmartSearch platform has won 13 awards and accolades just this year, including the Queen’s Award for Innovation, shows that the system has been fundamental in facilitating change in the fight against money laundering.

This is further evidenced by the fact that the Fifth Money-Laundering Directive, which was adopted by the EU in April, now calls for electronic identification as an essential part of verifying customer information.

Soon, electronic verification will become mandatory, and when that happens, we are already in place to offer the solution.