Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) jointly with the Arab Exchange Federation organised the first suptech Webinar to discuss supervisory technology and innovation designed to tackle challenges faced by supervisory agencies and thus initiated dialogue in the region on such an important and critical issue.

Suptech is focused on automating and streamlining administrative and operational procedures, digitizing data and improving data analytics for regulators. In other words, it’s the technologies for the regulators themselves.

The webinar consisted of keynote speeches from H.E. Dr. Obaid Al Zaabi, CEO SCA and Mr. Rami el Dokany, Secretary General, Arab Federation of Exchanges who highlighted the significance of suptech and its relevance for the Arab Region. There was a presentation from representatives from Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) UK on their use of cloud-based technologies to deliver analytical insight and intelligence. The presentation was followed by a panel discussion consisting of senior representatives from Bahrain Bourse, Accenture Middle East, Ernest & Young Singapore, Arab Federation of Exchanges and FinTech Galaxy discussing the challenges in development of suptech in the Arab region. The panel stressed on availability of necessary skill set, capacity, cost considerations, availability of data and need for effective digitization to ensure success of suptech in GCC.  Various aspects of developing suptech solutions for regulators were discussed as to whether they should be developed in-house or outsourced to technology providers and consultants given the sensitivity around suptech.

Narjes Farookh Jamal, Chief Operating Officer of Bahrain Bourse while participating in the panel commented “As an SRO, we in Bahrain Bourse implement active surveillance and are committed to investigating questionable activities of our members. To gain the confidence of our investors we have to ensure our ability to oversee our members activities, given the complexities of securities transactions conducted on cross boarder markets and in multiple currencies. Therefore, the need becomes mandatory for SRO’s to put in place the right suptech tools to enable a more efficient and resilient business operation.”

 On the other hand, Varun Mittal, EY ASEAN Emerging Market Leader commented that “Suptech enables regulators to embrace the changes brought to financial services due to speed and scale of new solution providers, use cases and data. Technology is the biggest ally for regulators to bring digitization and automation to ensure proactive and cost-effective governance of emerging products and services. Suptech is necessary foundation for next generation of financial services and fintech solutions to be successful.” While Luca Bianconi, Managing Director, Accenture Middle East stressed on “Regulators and exchanges to avoid going for tactical solutions. They should first define their suptech vision, it can be part of their overall digital aspirations and then establish a strategy to achieve it”

As per Mr. Rami el Dokany, Secretary General, Arab Federation of Exchanges “Suptech in capital markets has many opportunities, in many services areas that enhance communication with investors. Capital markets should ease the way for younger generations to start investing in capital markets, if markets did not innovate, they will run out of individual investors shortly. AFE is keen in tackling these issues.”

 As per H.E. Dr. Obaid Al Zaabi, CEO SCA “Suptech has emerged recently, and already, it has gained significant acceptance among supervisory regulators around the world as there are notable examples of their use by capital market regulators across the globe.  Under the present crisis experienced during the pandemic COVID-19 Given and the rapid change in economic conditions, systems for collecting and analysing data and its impact through regtech and suptech offer important tools as it provides more granular and real time information about financial health requiring significant institutions to report core data.

The only choice lies in electing how we respond: by resisting the pressure exerted by external forces and embracing the market distress and instability by actively working across agencies and across borders to shape an augmented set of positive outcomes that are the fruit of vision, leadership and sound governance.

As far as UAE capital markets are concerned, within SCA, we have launched an ‘Open Text’ project which permits real time information sharing and reporting by all market participants. Additionally, the SCA team is already working and deploying e-enforcement and e-supervision tools to ensure effective financial supervision in this new era of remote working and social distancing.”

 The webinar received tremendous response and had participants from regulatory and supervisory Authorities, International organisations, market Players and other relevant stakeholders across the Arab region. The findings of the webinar are being compiled into a joint report by AFE and SCA for future research.