Vancouver, B.C., and Utrecht, NL – April 20, 2020 – iComply Investor Services (“iComply”), a regtech leader in compliance for financial services providers, and Quantoz N.V., the provider of NEXUS, a SaaS platform that enables compliant fiat-to-virtual asset transfers, are announcing their shared solution to address the technical and compliance challenges that regulated firms face when using public blockchains.
Stablecoins – digital assets that are secured by real-world assets such as fiat currency – are being explored by central banks in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union as one of the most promising applications for blockchain technology in finance. Compared to physical currency, stablecoins provide lower operating costs, increased transparency, and real-time reconciliation capabilities as a new form of contactless cash.
While hundreds of new ventures have launched blockchain solutions, most struggle with maintaining their accounting, reporting, and compliance to an institutional standard. This results in many innovative projects failing, due in large part to their failure to meet regulatory requirements.
Henri de Jong, Co-founder and Chief Business Development Officer of Quantoz, said: “Companies operating in the blockchain space, are increasingly subject to regulation. Cooperation with iComply helps our NEXUS customers to dynamically comply with regulatory rules and procedures across multiple jurisdictions.”
Integration of the NEXUS platform with iComply’s intelligent AML management solution will allow financial services providers to mitigate compliance risk while using public blockchains. This compliance-by-design methodology enables firms to identify risk, automate transaction monitoring, and scale back-office operations.
“In order to successfully manage a stablecoin, the issuer needs to manage complicated technical, regulatory, and compliance requirements,” said Matthew Unger, CEO of iComply. “By integrating NEXUS with iComply we can help private banks, corporations, and central banks to easily test and deploy digitally native assets.”
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About iComply Investor Services Inc.
iComply Investor Services Inc. (“iComply”) is a Regtech company that provides fully-digital KYC and AML compliance solutions for non face-to-face financial and legal interactions. iComply enables financial services providers to reduce costs, risk, and complexity and improve staff capacity, effectiveness, and customer experience. By partnering with multinational technology vendors such as Microsoft, DocuSign, Thomson Reuters and Refinitiv, iComply is bringing compliance teams into the digital age. Learn more: www.icomplyis.com
About Quantoz:
Quantoz enables its clients to easily integrate tokens into their business with NEXUS, a SaaS solution that connects traditional financial “fiat money” with public blockchains.
iComply Contact Info:
Matthew Unger, CEO Media@iComplyis.com
Vancouver, Canada
Quantoz Contact Info:
Nick Haasnoot, CEO nick@quantoz.com
Utrecht, Netherlands
Mastering Beneficial Ownership Reviews: A Compliance Analyst’s Guide
Simplify complex beneficial ownership reviews with automated data collection, verification, and reporting. Enhance compliance, reduce risk, and streamline due diligence with iComply.
Transform Compliance from Chaos to Confidence
Streamline KYC, KYB, AML processes, enhance client experience, and reduce risk with iComply’s comprehensive compliance solution. Say goodbye to manual tasks and hello to efficiency.
Navigating the FATF Travel Rule with Ease
Simplify compliance with the FATF Travel Rule using iComply’s integrated platform. Automate data collection, ensure secure information sharing, and stay ahead of regulatory changes.
Vancouver, B.C. – April 14, 2020 – iComply Investor Services (“iComply”), a leading regtech software provider, is announcing it has partnered with Microsoft to offer its intelligent KYC and AML services through over 64,000 Microsoft solutions providers worldwide. This enables financial services providers to fast track their digital transition and enable a contactless customer journey.
Now available through Microsoft’s Appsource and the Azure Marketplace, iComply’s KYC Essentials solution enables businesses to quickly deploy banking-grade identity verification and AML screening tools directly into their website, mobile app, or client portal.
“Businesses that rely on face-to-face interactions for client onboarding and identity verification need help to close these gaps in their digital operations,” said Matthew Unger, CEO of iComply. “iComply enables businesses to securely deploy unique compliance workflows with clicks, not code, reducing cost and manual processes.”
iComply’s compliance tools can be set up within days and do not require developers or downloadable apps. By verifying the user’s identity “client-side,” iComply ensures personal data is protected and never has to leave the device to be authenticated. This innovation in privacy reduces liability, cost, and helps to identify fraud early.
“It’s common for digital onboarding services to send user’s data into unknown jurisdictions or employ hundreds of people to review photos manually for face matching. Conversely, our verification tool uses artificial intelligence for verification and facilitates unique AML workflows by jurisdiction to improve compliance, scalability, accuracy, cyber-security, and unit economics,” added Unger.
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About iComply Investor Services Inc.
iComply Investor Services Inc. (“iComply”) is a Regtech company that provides fully-digital KYC and AML compliance solutions for non-face-to-face financial and legal interactions. iComply enables financial services providers to reduce costs, risk, and complexity and improve staff capacity, effectiveness, and customer experience. By partnering with multinational technology vendors such as Microsoft, DocuSign, Thomson Reuters, and Refinitiv, iComply is bringing compliance teams into the digital age. Learn more: www.icomplyis.com
Mastering Beneficial Ownership Reviews: A Compliance Analyst’s Guide
Simplify complex beneficial ownership reviews with automated data collection, verification, and reporting. Enhance compliance, reduce risk, and streamline due diligence with iComply.
Transform Compliance from Chaos to Confidence
Streamline KYC, KYB, AML processes, enhance client experience, and reduce risk with iComply’s comprehensive compliance solution. Say goodbye to manual tasks and hello to efficiency.
Navigating the FATF Travel Rule with Ease
Simplify compliance with the FATF Travel Rule using iComply’s integrated platform. Automate data collection, ensure secure information sharing, and stay ahead of regulatory changes.
Vancouver, B.C. – February 26, 2019 – iComply Investor Services (“iComply”), a regulatory technology firm offering software that automates global compliance requirements for digital assets, is announcing that it will be releasing integrations for Hedera Hashgraph, a public, distributed ledger platform.
This will include integrations for both iComply’s Prefacto trade management protocol and iComplyKYC product. These integrations will make it easy for developers to implement banking-grade governance, risk, and compliance programs globally. This will also enable financial institutions to adopt and benefit from decentralization.
“For Hedera developers, this means that investors, both corporations and individuals, can be quickly screened and onboarded,” said iComply CEO, Matthew Unger. “Further, globally compliant digital assets such as equity, debt, derivatives, or utility tokens can be created and issued in minutes and have their compliance automatically managed throughout the life of the asset.”
Hedera Hashgraph is a public distributed ledger for building decentralized applications that is recognized for being fast and secure.
“Hedera’s speed and security make it a powerful tool for use in global capital markets. Even with scaling layers, Ethereum’s current speed of 15 transactions per second cannot handle public market transaction volumes,” said Matthew Unger, CEO of iComply.
According to 2017 World Bank data, the U.S. capital markets alone perform 40 billion daily transactions, requiring over 230 billion compliance recordings each day.
Anyone issuing digital securities – including hedge funds, securities exchanges, and financial institutions – using Hedera Hashgraph and iComply will benefit from iComply’s banking-grade compliance, risk, and intelligence tools paired with Hedera’s security and speed.
“We are excited that iComply has chosen to integrate their services with Hedera and give our community access to banking-grade compliance, risk, and financial intelligence data,” said Jordan Fried, VP of Global Business Development at Hedera Hashgraph. “Further, this will allow us to better serve financial institutions, and enable a broader range of institutional grade applications to be built, to streamline and reduce operating costs in financial services.”
iComply’s award-winning products enable investor onboarding in seconds, while ensuring adherence to local regulatory standards with its robust, global KYC and BSA solution. Securities issuers, dealers, and fund managers can automatically populate, track, and account for every investor, document, and transaction for the life of a client, reducing human error and costs by up to 98%.
iComply is the trusted compliance partner for asset tokenization and securitization to 64 leading legal, accounting, and advisory firms spanning 84 countries.
“From an enterprise financial services perspective, Hedera Hashgraph and iComply are a powerful combination of high performance, secure, and autonomous record keeping and reporting for public markets,” added Unger. “As the race to institutionalize blockchain continues, this integration will enable iComply to meet the cybersecurity and performance demands of even the highest volume securities exchanges and tier-one financial institutions.”
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About iComply Investor Services Inc.
iComply Investor Services Inc. (iComply) is an award-winning software company focused on reducing regulatory friction in the capital markets. With powerful data, verification, tokenization solutions, iComply helps companies overcome the cost and complexity of multi-jurisdictional compliance to effectively access new markets. Learn more: iComplyIS.com
Mastering Beneficial Ownership Reviews: A Compliance Analyst’s Guide
Simplify complex beneficial ownership reviews with automated data collection, verification, and reporting. Enhance compliance, reduce risk, and streamline due diligence with iComply.
Transform Compliance from Chaos to Confidence
Streamline KYC, KYB, AML processes, enhance client experience, and reduce risk with iComply’s comprehensive compliance solution. Say goodbye to manual tasks and hello to efficiency.
Navigating the FATF Travel Rule with Ease
Simplify compliance with the FATF Travel Rule using iComply’s integrated platform. Automate data collection, ensure secure information sharing, and stay ahead of regulatory changes.
iComply Offers OFAC Screening for Sanctioned Bitcoin and Crypto Addresses
On November 28, 2018, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added its first bitcoin addresses to its public list of sanctioned individuals and entities. iComply is capable of screening these addresses to ensure compliance for decentralized finance and assets
Vancouver, B.C. – November 29, 2018 – iComply Investor Services (“iComply”), a leading RegTech platform for global digital finance and cryptocurrencies offers comprehensive blockchain forensic screening to address risks related to blockchain addresses, including sanctions screening, fraud, theft, and cyber-security.
On November 28, 2018, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added multiple Iranians and their bitcoin addresses to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN List) for laundering the bitcoin proceeds from the infamous SamSam ransomware scheme. This is the first instance of OFAC adding a cryptocurrency address to their public list of sanctioned individuals and entities.
“Agencies such as OFAC protect the integrity of financial markets, warning companies about individuals or companies that may pose a risk to their business. We developed our RegTech software, iComply, to make it possible to screen for these kinds of threats in both centralized and decentralized finance to address the unique risks when financial assets are traded using public blockchains. Currently, our solution supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Dash and Bitcoin Cash,” said Qayyum Rajan, Chief Data Officer, of iComply Investor Services Inc.
iComply’s solution addresses risks related to blockchain addresses and the trading of financial assets using public blockchains, this is an integral process that is complementary to traditional AML/KYC for fiat. Institutions can query addresses to achieve financial grade compliance around the individuals and entities that it transacts with.
“As blockchain is increasingly used for mainstream finance, it is integral to enforce regulatory compliance not just for the individual and entity but also for the transactions themselves,’ added Rajan. “While there has been a lot of talk about the Howey test to determine whether a token is subject to securities laws, institutions such as OFAC are now also enforcing criminal liabilities once these assets are trading.”
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Looking for financial grade KYC and AML in an enterprise ready API?
iComply offers global screening for humans, corporations, and blockchain transactions in a single REST API.
Book a demo with one of our specialists to learn more.
About iComply Investor Services Inc.
iComply Investor Services Inc. (iComply) is an award-winning software company focused on reducing regulatory friction in the capital markets. With powerful data, verification, tokenization solutions, iComply helps companies overcome the cost and complexity of multi-jurisdictional compliance to effectively access new markets. Learn more: iComplyIS.com
Thomson Reuters has launched its Marketplace, featuring a curated selection of software solutions for law firms, corporate law offices, and tax and accounting professionals
Updated iComplyKYC platform leverages edge computing and AI to support onboarding and ID verification for legal entities and natural persons
iComply Investor Services is pleased to announce its listing in the FINRA Compliance Vendor Directory, which features vendors offering compliance solutions and services.
A research team from the University of British Columbia (UBC) conducted more than 45 interviews and dozens of observations from industry experts to explore the past, present, and expectations for the future of token issuers from diverse perspectives.
iComply Investor Services commissioned a study to better understand the challenges that token issuers face to meet the regulatory standards for issuing and tracking digital assets. Currently, these projects face significant barriers that result in trade-offs that hinder the true potential of blockchain managed assets. The research collaboration was supported by Mitacs’s Accelerate Program.
The Findings:
The use of blockchain technology allows token issuers to efficiently gain access to global customers, partners, and capital.
Key Challenge: The burden of the cost of regulation
Challenges broadly stem from the cost of complying with regulation. In 2017 there was significant ambiguity surrounding whether and how digital assets were regulated, and many issuers neglected this dimension altogether. While a large number of issuers were well-intentioned, others could not resist exploiting the prospect of unlimited access to global investors. Early offerings could often raise more with savvy marketing than a well-reasoned project plan, and a large number of early token offerings were little more than Ponzi schemes. Today, regulatory clarity and enforcement are essential if tokenized securities are to become a safe and legitimate fundraising mechanism.
The study found that issuers currently face a compliance trilemma, whereby they can realize only two of the following three goals in their token offerings:
While we focus here on ICOs, the compliance trilemma also holds more generally for other decentralized finance practices involving cryptoassets including ICOs, STOs, TGEs, and IEOs.
To date, issuers have adopted various approaches to address the trilemma:
However, each of these current approaches is sub-optimal, and a solution is needed to the compliance trilemma.
The study also explored how industry experts expected the compliance trilemma to be resolved and found that the majority tended to advocate new regulatory rules and definitions that could relax what they see as the “burden” of compliance on issuers. Such an approach places the onus squarely on regulators, who would need to coordinate within and across jurisdictions to reach a coherent regulatory framework that appeases the challenges and costs of compliance for issuers. However, we argue that holding regulators solely accountable for the compliance trilemma is incomplete and misguided, and that other approaches are needed to reduce the costs and uncertainties of regulatory compliance.
About iComply Investor Services Inc.
iComply Investor Services Inc. (iComply) is an award-winning software company focused on reducing regulatory friction in the capital markets. With powerful data, verification, tokenization solutions, iComply helps companies overcome the cost and complexity of multi-jurisdictional compliance to effectively access new markets. Learn more: iComplyIS.com
Mastering Beneficial Ownership Reviews: A Compliance Analyst’s Guide
Simplify complex beneficial ownership reviews with automated data collection, verification, and reporting. Enhance compliance, reduce risk, and streamline due diligence with iComply.
Transform Compliance from Chaos to Confidence
Streamline KYC, KYB, AML processes, enhance client experience, and reduce risk with iComply’s comprehensive compliance solution. Say goodbye to manual tasks and hello to efficiency.
Navigating the FATF Travel Rule with Ease
Simplify compliance with the FATF Travel Rule using iComply’s integrated platform. Automate data collection, ensure secure information sharing, and stay ahead of regulatory changes.
Chicago, Il. — FIA announced that iComply Investor Services Inc. (“iComply”) is one of 15 companies chosen to exhibit in the Innovators Pavilion at the 34th Annual FIA Expo in Chicago October 16 – 18. Innovators Pavilion showcases startup companies providing forward-thinking solutions for the futures, options and cleared swaps industry.
iComply was chosen from a competitive pool of applicants to showcase its offerings to more than 4,500 attendees at the largest gathering of derivatives industry professionals in the world. The Innovators Pavilion provides each FIA Innovator with a Tech Pod on the Expo show floor that can be used to display its services. iComply will also be featured in the official conference guide, the FIA’s service provider directory, and the event app. In addition, five FIA Innovators will be chosen to take part in a Meet the Innovators competition in which each company will have five minutes to pitch its services to Expo attendees. Following the competition, a panel of judges will select one company as the FIA Innovator of the Year and award that firm a prize of cash and other resources valued at more than $20,000.
This year’s Innovators Pavilion is sponsored by Amazon Web Services and supported by several fintech organizations and angel investor groups, including Fintech Sandbox, FinTEx, Hyde Park Angels, Rise New York and Seismic Foundry.
“I’m proud to announce that iComply was chosen to be featured in the 2018 class of FIA Innovators,” said Matt Haraburda of XR Trading, chairman of the Innovators Pavilion selection committee and executive committee member of the FIA Principal Traders Group (FIA PTG). “iComply…represents some of the most progressive and forward-thinking work being done in fintech related to cleared derivatives. I’m looking forward to seeing their work showcased at Expo.”
With more than 4,500 people attending each year, the FIA Expo is the largest gathering of derivatives industry professionals in the world. Attendees include senior executives from brokerage firms, exchanges, trading firms, and service providers, and the exhibit hall typically attracts more than a hundred firms as exhibitors.
iComply and other Innovators were selected on the basis of applications that were submitted and reviewed by a committee of industry experts assembled by FIA.
View the full list of FIA Innovators here.
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About FIA
FIA is the leading global trade organization for the futures, options and centrally cleared derivatives markets, with offices in London, Singapore and Washington, D.C. FIA’s membership includes clearing firms, exchanges, clearinghouses, trading firms and commodities specialists from more than 48 countries as well as technology vendors, lawyers and other professionals serving the industry. FIA’s mission is to support open, transparent and competitive markets, protect and enhance the integrity of the financial system, and promote high standards of professional conduct. As the principal members of derivatives clearinghouses worldwide, FIA’s member firms play a critical role in the reduction of systemic risk in global financial markets.
About iComply Investor Services Inc.
iComply Investor Services Inc. (iComply) is an award-winning software company focused on reducing regulatory friction in the capital markets. With powerful data, verification, tokenization solutions, iComply helps companies overcome the cost and complexity of multi-jurisdictional compliance to effectively access new markets. Learn more: iComplyIS.com
Mastering Beneficial Ownership Reviews: A Compliance Analyst’s Guide
Simplify complex beneficial ownership reviews with automated data collection, verification, and reporting. Enhance compliance, reduce risk, and streamline due diligence with iComply.
Transform Compliance from Chaos to Confidence
Streamline KYC, KYB, AML processes, enhance client experience, and reduce risk with iComply’s comprehensive compliance solution. Say goodbye to manual tasks and hello to efficiency.
Navigating the FATF Travel Rule with Ease
Simplify compliance with the FATF Travel Rule using iComply’s integrated platform. Automate data collection, ensure secure information sharing, and stay ahead of regulatory changes.
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