Bank of England taps Wolters Kluwer for Regulatory Reporting Expertise

Wolters Kluwer’s Finance, Risk & Reporting (FRR) business has been invited to take part in an industry roundtable, organized by the Bank of England, which will discuss proposals designed to ensure U.K. banks are accountable for their own resolvability – the Resolvability Assessment Framework (RAF).

The roundtable takes place today and includes Partner level participants from law firms, consultancies and accounting firms. Wolters Kluwer is the sole technology provider taking part in the event and “will be providing expertise relating to regulatory reporting implications.”

Representing Wolters Kluwer at the roundtable is Nicos Kynicos, London-based Product Manager for Regulatory Reporting, U.K., Ireland and Nordics at Wolters Kluwer FRR.

Consisting of two consultation papers, the Bank of England and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) published the RAF package in December 2018. An important step in the Bank’s commitment to Parliament that major U.K. banks will be fully resolvable by 2022, the package is designed to make resolution more transparent, better understood and more successful by creating a common assessment framework across all firms.

In a statement Wolters Kluwer said its decision to take part in the event signaled its “ongoing commitment to share its regulatory insights with regulators and the industry as a whole.”

“This advisory roundtable provides a useful opportunity to hear directly from influential thought leaders that are contributing to this important subject for the U.K.’s banking sector,” added Kynicos. “The approach and objectives of the RAF are certainly welcome. It makes absolute sense to internalize the externalities associated with failure of major financial institutions. I look forward to discussing the wider implications of the package and hearing what the Bank and other experts believe to be the key areas for focus in the proposals.”

The news follows on from another example of Wolters Kluwer being called on for its industry insight. In September 2018 Wolters Kluwer’s Compliance Program Management (CPM) business took part in a major industry roundtable devoted to discussing strategies for building operational resilience in the U.K.’s financial services sector.

The advisory roundtable, jointly organized by The Bank of England and the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), included Partner level participants from some of the biggest law firms, consultancies and accounting firms. Once again Wolters Kluwer was the sole technology provider taking part in the event, providing expertise relating to operational risk implications.

In July 2018 the FCA and Bank of England released a joint discussion paper on Operational Resilience. They are now running a series of events to support the discussion paper, including this advisory roundtable.

The paper envisages that boards and senior management can achieve better standards of operational resilience through increased focus on setting, monitoring and testing specific impact tolerances for key business services which define the level of disruption that could be tolerated. “The challenges for operational resilience have become even more demanding given a hostile cyber environment and large scale technological changes. As recent disruptive events illustrate, operational resilience is a vital part of protecting the U.K.’s financial system, institutions and consumers,” the regulators said at the time.

Representing Wolters Kluwer at the roundtable was Brian Gregory, Vice President, Non-Financial Risk/Governance, Risk and Compliance, EMEA, for Wolters Kluwer’s CPM business.

Wolters Kluwer FRR, which is part of the company’s Governance, Risk & Compliance division, is a global market leader in the provision of integrated regulatory compliance and reporting solutions. It supports regulated financial institutions in meeting their obligations to external regulators and their own board of directors.

Wolters Kluwer FRR receives frequent independent recognition of its excellence and innovation. In mid-2018, Risk magazine awarded the company its coveted Regulatory Reporting System of The Year Award and Central Banking magazine recently named OneSumX for Regulatory Reporting its Best Technology Solution For Regulatory Compliance. Wolters Kluwer FRR is also this year’s Category Winner for Regulatory Reporting in the annual RiskTech100® report. This comprehensive study of the world’s leading risk and compliance technology companies is compiled by Chartis Research. Notably, this is the seventh time in eight years that Wolters Kluwer FRR has achieved this honor.

Wolters Kluwer’s Compliance Program Management solutions enable chief compliance officers at banks, securities, and insurance companies to stay on top of compliance with a myriad of financial and non-financial regulations. The NILS Insource Web-based regulatory content solution is used by 80% of the largest 35 U.S. insurance companies. Our compliance program management and operational risk management solutions are used by the world’s largest banks.

Both FRR and Compliance Solutions are part of the Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Division of Wolters Kluwer, led by New York-based CEO Richard Flynn. The division provides legal and banking professionals with solutions to ensure compliance with ever-changing regulatory and legal obligations, manage risk, increase efficiency, stay competitive and produce better business outcomes. GRC offers a portfolio of technology-enabled expert services and solutions focused on legal entity compliance, legal operations management, banking product compliance, and banking regulatory compliance.

Wolters Kluwer itself is a global leader in information services and solutions for professionals in the health, tax and accounting, risk and compliance, finance and legal sectors. Wolters Kluwer reported 2017 annual revenues of €4.4 billion. The company, headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands, serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries and employs 19,000 people worldwide.