Grant Thornton UK LLP, CMS, Macfarlanes, and Mastercard to collaborate with the Regulatory Genome Project at the University of Cambridge, a new machine-readable repository that allows firms to easily understand their global risks and obligations.
Regulation in the digital era is highly complex and globally fragmented, with rules changing at a rapid pace. To address this issue, Grant Thornton UK LLP, CMS, Macfarlanes, and Mastercard are supporting a new initiative at the University of Cambridge, the Regulatory Genome Project, to create an inclusive and easily accessible repository of regulatory information for the digital economy.
The Regulatory Genome will be an open-access source of machine-readable information for use by both regulators and firms in the financial services industry. The initiative meets a vital informational need – helping regulators create interoperable frameworks to reflect rapidly changing global rules in the financial services industry, while also helping firms understand and abide by these rules. It will promote real-time understanding of an ever-shifting body of laws and requirements, while bringing clarity and transparency to the global financial system.
“Our collaboration with the University of Cambridge will put the power of technology to work, helping regulators and organisations across the globe keep pace with the accelerated developments related to the continued digitisation of financial services,” said Johan Gerber, executive vice president, Security & Cyber Innovation at Mastercard.
The cross-industry commitment underlines the Project’s scope and ambition: the vast amount of global regulation in the digital economy means that humans cannot compile such a repository alone, so the Project uses machine learning and natural language processing to convert human-readable text into machine-readable code. This enables the creation of a comprehensive, searchable and digestible body of regulations that will provide quick and relevant information on any company’s risks and obligations.
“The Regulatory Genome Project aims to promote financial inclusion in the global digital economy,” said Dr. Robert Wardrop, Faculty (Professor level) in Management Practice and Director of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at University of Cambridge Judge Business School, and founder of the RGP. “A repository of machine-readable regulation will provide a de facto standard for regulatory compliance by firms operating around the world. We expect to announce many other collaborators joining the project in the coming months.”
About The Regulatory Genome Project:
Born out of research within the University of Cambridge and acting in close collaboration with the University and other key public and private stakeholders, the Regulatory Genome Project’s mission is to sequence the world’s financial regulation and catalyse innovation across the financial services sector.
