Strathclyde Business SchoolFinancial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL)

 

Actionable Research

FRIL is an initiative that is established on a demand-led principle, with FinTech Scotland leading the project as a strategic enabler of collaboration within the FinTech ecosystem across Scotland and the UK. In line with this principle, FRIL has launched a white paper series as an important channel for industry to inform the activities of FRIL on an open co-design basis. The white paper series will provide an exciting platform for cross-institutional collaboration between industry and academia on a prioritised set of themes identified by industry within the domain of financial regulation innovation. The priority themes are as follows:

  • AI and Compliance - Utilising emerging technologies to simplify compliance process and monitoring.
  • Consumer Duty - Supporting consumer duty obligations and enhancing financial inclusion outcomes.
  • Financial Crime - Addressing future challenges of financial crime.
  • ESG - Meeting new regulatory requirements, leveraging new data and new technologies.

 

Objective and Oversight

The objective of the white paper series is to deliver a unique set of targeted analyses and bespoke commentaries that will provide new insights to advance the development and adoption of financial regulation innovation in the UK and globally. The outputs of the white paper series will directly inform the priority challenges that the innovation call series will address, the translational research and impact that the actionable research programme will deliver, and the reskilling and upskilling that the skills development programme will provide.   

 

Co-created with industry practitioners, the white papers will be designed for industry consumption and knowledge exchange. The white paper series will:

  1. Articulate complex problem statements informed by industry in the area of innovation for financial regulation compliance.
  2. Synthesise existing industry and academic literature and know-how to identify clearly where new contributions can made to existing knowledge.
  3. Propose a solutions framework and/or innovative solutions to the articulated problems and provide practice relevant use case demonstrators.
  4. Provide access to the open-source software libraries that implement the use demonstrators.
  5. Propose recommendations for practice and policy, the latter leveraging FRIL’s access into the UK’s regulatory bodies;
  6. Explore skills requirements and the most effective learning models to the topics covered.

The white paper series will be overseen by an experienced Industry Steering Group convened by FRIL to provide guidance and advice, ensuring optimal alignment of the studies with the goals of industry.

 

The white paper series provides a number of benefits to the wider stakeholders engaged with FRIL:

  • Access to new evidence and insights in respect of digital innovation that can support your organisations’ financial regulation compliance obligations.
  • The availability of use case demonstrators that bring to life the analyses covered by the studies, highlighting opportunities for the development or the adoption of financial regulation innovation.
  • Participation in an active process of knowledge exchange between stakeholders on the topics covered by the white paper series. 
 

 

 

In line with the demand-led principle on which FRIL is premised, the optimal impact from the white papers series will occur when there is close collaboration between academia and industry. We envisage a number of levels of engagement with industry on the white paper series. These are set out as follows, where the time commitments outlined are for guidance purposes:

 

Engagement Level (in increasing order of involvement)

Description

Reviewer

Review white paper draft and provide feedback, with particular focus on practice relevance and potential impact. Academic authorship team will provide written response on how feedback has been incorporated and edits made to the white paper.

 

Potential reviewers: compliance officers; regulatory professionals; risk analysts; risk managers; technologists; senior managers and executives.

Contributor

Provide detailed input through discussions with the academic authorship team into the design and articulation of the problem statement and/or the solution framework, with particular focus on the use case demonstrators. Contribute to surrounding discussions, such as policy implications and skills requirements related to the white paper topic. Contributions will be explicitly acknowledged and in line with company policy.

 

Potential contributors: compliance officers; regulatory professionals; risk analysts; risk managers; technologists.

Co-Author

Work as a co-author with the academic authorship team, contributing directly to the write-up, in particular the design and articulation of the problem statement and/or the solution framework. Lead in framing the use case demonstrators for optimal relevance to practice. Where appropriate, guide the narrative around policy implications and skills requirements related to the white paper topic. Co-author contributions will be explicitly acknowledged and in line with company policy. 

 

Potential contributors: compliance officers; regulatory professionals; risk analysts; risk managers; technologists.

 

Publication, Integrity and Ethics

FRIL will follow normal publishing conventions with white papers and with funded research (FRIL receives funding from Innovate UK, which is part of Research Councils UK).  This means we will publish under Creative Commons licensing, with papers having a digital object identification (DOI), and the overall FRIL papers series will have an ISSN number.  We will also follow norms of research integrity and research ethics.  

  

Contact FRIL

mark.cummins@strath.ac.uk

 

Address

Strathclyde Business School
University of Strathclyde
199 Cathedral Street
Glasgow
G4 0QU

Triple accredited

 
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