Global RegTech Provider of the Year: Vizor Software

Data is the lifeblood of a safe and sound financial system, but ensuring the data central banks receive from firms is put to good use can be a challenge. Vizor Software believes this needs to change. 

For several years, the Irish regtech firm has provided high-end software to financial regulators to simplify and strengthen their systems’ ability to gather and analyse regulatory data. The system has been rolled out in more than 25 countries, including at many central banks. In 2019, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) become one of Vizor’s latest clients. 

From March 2018, regulated entities in Singapore were granted the right to decline any request from the MAS for structured data they have previously provided to regulators. The change was designed to try and move towards zero duplication of data requests but, for the initiative to be successful, a change in how the central bank processed and used data needed to occur. 

Following a public tender process, Vizor was chosen by the MAS to not only design a new ‘data collection gateway’, but also install, test and commission the new software. “[The software] will streamline and consolidate data collection, validation and administration into a single integrated commercial off-the-shelf product,” says chief executive Conor Crowley. 

The software will allow departments within the central bank to ‘self-service’ the data they need, allowing them to define and manage data collections and validations. The Data Gateway is due to be launched in 2020. 

Over the past five years, Vizor has earned a reputation as a trusted provider of technology to the world’s regulators, earning it the Central Banking FinTech & Regtech Global RegTech Provider of the Year Award for the second time. In the course of its work, the regtech firm has had to fully or partially retire more than 13 legacy systems across numerous agencies and migrate 87 separate and unique types of dataset, some of them dating back to the 1960s. 

One of its biggest success stories over the past 12 months has been with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, where it is in the process of replacing the regulator’s data collection system with an upgraded version with machine learning capabilities. The latest release of the firm’s software allows financial supervisors to distribute data through new application programming interfaces. 

Its platform also supports various formats, including Excel, XML and XBRL, which enables regulators to accept data submissions from entities flexibly. Over the past year, Vizor has also enabled is platform to accept iXBRL for the collection of financial statements. 

Vizor has kept up not only with the continuous flow of new regulation being pumped into the market by regulators, but also with technological change and client needs, making it a leader in its field.

Read the full Central Banking FinTech & RegTech Global Awards 2019 Winners In Focus report