Brian Knight

Industry education provider Kaplan Professional and RegTech pioneer Red Marker are encouraging licensees and organisations to ensure they are well-equipped to face increased scrutiny from the regulator.

The positive reinforcement follows a recent spate of incidents involving ASIC cracking down on noncompliance and regulatory breaches. Clear examples of this being ASIC’s focus on unlicensed accountants and the clampdown on the use of certain terms under s923A of the Corporations Act. In addition, ASIC have stated they will be utilising more sophisticated tools to analyse data and address identified risks.

With RegTech front of mind for both the regulator and industry, Kaplan Professional and Red Marker are confident Artemis – their real-time compliance solution – will empower organisations to be more proactive and pre-emptive in identifying and remediating their own risk, effectively minimising instances of poor and misleading advice reaching consumers or being detected by the regulator.

Red Marker CEO Matt Symons said he was delighted with the buzz surrounding RegTech, and its ability to make risk and compliance more exciting and positive.

“Good governance starts with capability and the right set of tools – this is a terrific catalyst for change and encourages the industry to be serious about building a true culture of compliance.

“RegTech creates efficiencies and productivity improvements to manage regulatory obligations in a cost effective and compliant manner,” he said.

After more than three years of development as a website and social media surveillance and engagement tool, Artemis has expanded to encompass real-time risk detection in statements of advice, providing the ability to upload documents directly into the engine and conduct an immediate compliance check.

Kaplan Professional and Red Marker are also focussed on working with their clients to connect real-time risk identification with professional education to shape the industry’s training outcomes now and into the future.

Kaplan Professional chief executive Brian Knight said this would enable licensees to identify when and how to train advisers.

“We are building education pieces into the engine – bite-sized chunks of micro-learning – so advisers are able to detect when they have made a mistake, self-correct and learn as they go.

“It is a learner-driven process enabling continuing education to be delivered when and where it is needed, as an integrated part of an adviser’s role.

“We are committed to continuing to work with our clients and the industry to provide meaningful compliance solutions, and further investigate new and innovative ways of utilising artificial intelligence to provide better learning outcomes,” he said.

Symons encouraged the industry to take advantage of RegTech’s and Artemis’ endless potential.

“There is genuine capability out there right now – this is an enormous opportunity for the industry to innovate in the way they do things.

“Those who do not get on board with this technology now will be stuck doing things the old way, while others move further ahead.”

With a host of major licensees already using Artemis, Kaplan Professional and Red Marker welcome the opportunity for more of the financial services industry to capitalise on this innovative RegTech solution.

“It is extremely encouraging to see the number of AFSL’s embracing Artemis and RegTech – what better way to demonstrate to the regulator you are serious about creating a culture of compliance and protecting the best interests of the consumer,” Knight said.

“Their investment in RegTech is enabling them to do all they can to maintain visibility and control across their licence – it is a no-brainer to be on the front foot by being able to identify and mitigate risk before the regulator does and starts to ask questions.”

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Brian Knight

A recent Midwinter and Jenesis industry survey revealed just under half of the respondents had chosen not to engage in social media because of the associated risk to their business reputation.

Kaplan Professional and Red Marker have been developing the Artemis solution to help financial advisers create and share compliant digital content.

Artemis detects ‘risky’ content as it is being created, helping advisers and licensees to identify and remediate compliance risks associated with the promotion of financial products or services.

The innovative solution is able to identify risk across a range of media types including web pages, Word documents, PDF’s, and client communications. Artemis is also able to review proposed social media posts to identify content that may breach the corporations law or regulatory guidelines.

Kaplan Professional CEO Brian Knight said it was important as ever to ensure advisers were well-equipped to embrace digital communication channels with confidence.

“Digital is the way forward – advisers who are able to harness the full potential of these integral communication channels have increased capacity to market services, promote their brand, connect to current clients, and foster new business.

“Unfortunately, recent research has suggested compliance fears and reputational risk are limiting its use amongst advisers … a large amount also believe there is a lack of adequate education, highlighting a serious knowledge gap when it comes to engaging clients online.

“Artemis not only minimises the risk of publishing misleading content, it actively educates advisers through real-time feedback, just-in-time learning interventions, and professional development opportunities where necessary – I am confident it will help alleviate the perceived compliance fears and difficulty associated with digital and social media,” he said.

Artemis includes both content discovery and content recommendation functionality, helping advisers to identify relevant trending topics and news. It connects through an API to the major social media platforms, allowing advisers to easily share compliant content with both existing and prospective customers.

The platform also has the ability to create custom compliance rules that align with licensee policy and the establishment of streamlined internal approval policies.

Red Marker Director Matt Symons said he was excited by Artemis’ potential and the contribution it would make to Australia’s emerging RegTech space.

“Australia has an opportunity to become a world leader in this space – Red Marker is one of an emerging group of Australian RegTech pioneers who are showing it is possible to build globally relevant RegTech solutions right here in Australia.

“Three years of research and development has gone into Artemis and it continues to evolve with the feedback and support of our clients – we have been amazed by the willingness of the industry to work with us to develop Artemis to this point.

“All sorts of interesting opportunities start to open up once you figure out how to dynamically identify risky content as it is being produced,” he said.

Although the industry survey revealed only 13 per cent of advisers were satisfied with the level of digital and social media education their licensee was providing, Artemis is currently being used by more than 20 Australian Financial Services Licensees.

Artemis is receiving tremendous feedback about its unique application and future direction, and Kaplan Professional encourages licensees to invest in further digital and social media education to support advisers confidently and compliantly increase their online presence.

An Artemis product demonstration is available on request.

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