In the year or two since the word 'RegTech' appeared in the general discourse, a welter of league tables and award ceremonies has sprung up to cater for the newly confident community, much of which consists of old firms that have been swift to re-categorise themselves.

Solidatus, whose software is designed to "demonstrate regulatory lineage," was hailed as the "most innovative data privacy vendor solution" at the inaugural RegTech Awards during a ceremony at the close of the 2017 RegTech Summit for Capital Markets in New York on 16th November. The A-Team Group organised the summit, which brought together a community of firms that manage regulatory change and technology. RIMES Technologies, which provides managed data services and regtech for the buy-side, won "most innovative Benchmarks Regulation solution." RegFocus BMR claims to be the world’s first benchmark inventory management, enrichment and control platform and is designed to help asset managers, banks and insurance companies. AxiomSL, the regulatory reporting, risk and data management giant, was credited with the "most innovative use of a vendor solution to address a Dodd-Frank [Act] requirement." Firms that made it into the list of 100 candidates in the run-up to the awards were so proud of the fact that they rushed out propaganda pieces to celebrate. The 100 companies were chosen by a panel of industry experts who reviewed an analysis of 416 RegTech companies that was undertaken by the data and research firm of FinTech Global. More than half the companies hailed from the USA or UK. Australia, Ireland and Switzerland - regtech hubs all - had 21 companies between them. Other countries lagged behind but Brazil, Bermuda, South Africa, Cyprus and the United Arab Emirates were all there.

Amongst the British vendors were: Capnovum (predictive platform that helps businesses identify regulatory obligations); CheckRecipient (email security that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence or AI); ComplyAdvantage (AML screening and monitoring); CUBE (workflow); Digital Control Room (focusing on Europe's Global Data Protection Regulation); DueDil (company information); Logical Construct (reporting and document management); Onfido (ID verification); TAINA Technologies (tax); VoxSmart(mobile surveillance); and Waymark Tech (AI platform which tracks regulatory changes). Ireland's six firms were: AQMetrics; BlxLaw (which runs a robo-advisor called RegBot); Corlytics (which scans regulators' enforcement notices); Fenergo (which seems to do everything); Gecko Governance (blockchain IT for fund managers and banks); and Know Your Customer (money-laundering control). Canada's contributions included Agreement Express (onboarding); Trulioo (ID verification); and VigilantCS (workflow). Among the 26 American firms were: BIGcontrols; GreenKey (voice interface that uses AI); Identity Mind Global (AML ID); IDmission; Quarule (workflow); LogicGate (workflow); Finomial (workflow); Precognitive (fraud detection); and Cloud9 Technologies (Software-as-a-Service workflow). Shanmugavel Sankaran's governance, risk and compliance (GRC) firm of FixNix is the only Indian company to feature in the so-called 'RegTech 100.'

In partnership with ING, RegTech Markets held its Spotlight Awards on 6th November in London. The eight winners in their various categories were:  ShieldPay (financial crime); Trunomi (cyber security/data privacy/ID); BearingPoint (regulatory reporting/regulatory risk analysis); Law of the Jungle (general compliance - this firm came from Sydney in Australia);  REG UK LTD (regulatory intelligence/change/GRC); Qumram (market integrity); Duco (regulatory data); and Privitar ('excellence awards).

In March Planet Compliance issued its own top 100 league table of fintech businesses. The top 20 were: Onfido; AYASDI; Duedil; Trulioo; Coinfirm; Qumram; Darktrace; IdentityMind Global; Riskalyze; Feedzai; Unicorn Training; SOCURE; Comply Advantage; Visual Risk IQ; AppZen; DataArt; BioCatch; Smartlogic.com; NetGuardians SA; and BitAML. Temenos was at number 34; Trunomi at 43; AQMetrics at 45; Cordium at 52; Fenergo at 53; Kompli-Global at 56; and ViClarity (down 7) at 75.

Meanwhile, the regtech deals keep on coming. TOBAM, the go-ahead French boutique asset manager, has started to operate Europe's first ever mutual fund that tracks the value of Bitcoin. This is an unregulated Alternative Investment Fund, set up in France to help qualified and institutional investors who gain an exposure to the cryptocurrency. The firm claims that this vehicle is more convenient and safer than others, offsetting the risk of loss and theft that plagues the world of cryptos. The firm's propaganda notes, quite rightly, that although Bitcoin's price is volatile it is seen increasingly as a good way of diversifying one's portfolio. Thomson Reuters has extended the reference data on its DataScope platform to help firms comply with Europe's second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II).

The law firm of Allen & Overy has an online legal subscription business called aosphere LLP. Neota Logic, which runs an AI platform for documents and business processes, has helped aosphere to set up three RegTech apps to help financial service firms 'reduce risk.' The idea is to make legal content more accessible to legal and compliance teams that are pushed for time. Coinfirm, the blockchain regtech company, has decided to add lustre to its profile by recruiting veterans from Citigroup, KPMG, Publicis Groupe and SAP to its board.

The number of regulatory changes from all over the world that banks must trace has more than tripled since 2011 to an average of 200 revisions per day, according to a Boston Group report in March which also says that banks have paid US$321 billion in fines since 2008. Against such a backdrop, regulatory IT is bound to keep growing.