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Cross-sector consortium to deliver AI-driven ‘Data Access Platform’ for regulated industries

  • UK Research and Innovation supported AIR Platform (Automated Intelligent Regulation) will be a ‘generational breakthrough’ privacy preserving data access and data collaboration platform for regulated industries
  • Resulting technology infrastructure will ‘do for data what the Internet did for communication’
  • £1.67 million project jointly funded through private investment and UK Research and Innovation
  • Borne out of the need to address the global challenges and £billion costs being faced by regulated industries both internally and externally
  • Led by RegTech company, RegulAItion, the collaboration brings together banking, finance, insurance, legal and accountancy businesses
  • Partnered by major academia including UCL and Loughborough University
  • AIR Platform to deliver intelligence from previously inaccessible data through Responsible AI technologies

Tuesday 28th July 2020: A new cross-sector consortium of major businesses and universities is set to provide the key to the suffocating challenge of data access for regulated industries through a Responsible AI powered industry-agnostic platform; the AIR Platform.

Led by RegTech company RegulAItion, the AIR Platform is a privacy preserving, data access and data collaboration that will deliver a ‘generational breakthrough’ to how the private and public sectors operate and interact with each other locally and globally. Dubbed ‘The DataNet’ by Professor Philip Treleaven of University College London, the infrastructure has the potential to “do for data what the Internet did for communication”.

Backed by Government funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and private investment totalling £1.67 million, the AIR Platform is being developed in conjunction with project collaborators including the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), two international banks, Ashurst, Oasis Loss Modelling Framework, Wilson Wright Accounting and Tax Practice, University College London (UCL) and Loughborough University.

RegulAItion’s CEO, Sally Sfeir-Tait commented, “Our vision for the AIR Platform is to provide the digital infrastructure required for scalable, automated, repeatable, and responsible data-access, supporting the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the UK's leading position in it.”

She went on to explain, “We’re facing the perfect storm; there is simply more data in the world than we can handle, it is suffocating businesses, industries and regulators. Equally, data silos mean organisations are unable to develop meaningful solutions, and privacy concerns such as GDPR and commercial interests stand in the way of delivering collaborative efforts to share knowledge from data.

“Tackling these challenges as individual businesses or sectors is not only prohibitive but also limiting in terms of what can be achieved that is of real value. However, a collaborative, sector-agnostic approach driven by artificial intelligence, machine learning and other analytical technologies can work. The AIR Platform will be that generational breakthrough.”

The AIR Platform, and resulting project consortium, was borne out of a government innovation funding service competition held at the end of 2019 through UK Research and Innovation. Focused on enhancing the UK’s pre-eminent position in the service industries sector, the best minds from the business and technology worlds were brought together to debate and explore solutions to some of the biggest data challenges being faced today and develop the next generation services.

Stephen Browning, Challenge Director, Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Next-Generation Services, commented, “A common hurdle when trying to develop and apply AI solutions is accessing data, often across organisational boundaries. This is particularly true in regulated sectors such as Legal, Accountancy and Insurance where concern for the privacy of client data is paramount. The AIR Platform project has the potential to overcome some of these issues and unlock the potential of applying AI to Professional and Financial Services and I’m excited to see what this project can deliver in privacy enhancing data solutions.”

Regulated industries particularly are facing unprecedented challenges on a global scale, ranging from the impact of climate change to the detection and prevention of financial crimes. As a result, cross-industry proprietary data collaboration has been identified as critical by the UK Government for major security, service and product advances.

Regulators view data breakthroughs using AI and privacy enhancing technologies as fundamental to progress; technologies that facilitate the sharing of information whilst remaining compliant with data security laws. The AIR Platform can help financial institutions make data accessible across organisational and jurisdictional borders thereby materially changing the dial in fraud and financial crime detection and prevention.

Illustrating the breadth and scale of the issue, the Bank of England recently warned the financial sector that it risks losses from extreme weather and investments in polluting firms stating that as much as $20 trillion of assets could be wiped out if climate change is not effectively addressed. In terms of financial crime, The United Nations estimates that $1.6 trillion is laundered through the global financial system each year, with the UK alone accounting for $90 billion of this total.

The UK Research and Innovation backed consortium is partnered by the academic powerhouses of UCL and Institute for Digital Technologies at Loughborough University’s London campus.

“The AIR Platform has the potential of doing for data what the Internet did for communication. We are creating ‘The DataNet’ and doing so from the bottom-up in collaboration with the regulators and service industries,” stated Professor Philip Treleaven, Director UK Centre for Financial Computing, UCL.

Professor Treleaven went on to explain, “To thrive, the UK economy needs a new generation of agile data driven businesses. The AIR Platform has the technology stack to preserve security, privacy, regulatory and commercial protections in an automated way; it will break down barriers, allow true collaboration and drive economic innovation.”

The AIR Platform is under development with commercial and collaborator use cases being developed concurrently to establish real-world return on investment. Full project delivery is scheduled for UKRI’s deadline of June 2021.

For further information contact:

Media

Gabi Whitfield | gabi@performancecomms.com
Jamie Ivory | jamie@performancecomms.com

General

contactus@regulaition.com

About RegulAItion

RegulAItion is a data platform company developing the tools and technology infrastructure for scalable, automated, repeatable and responsible AI-driven data-access and business intelligence for regulators and the regulated industries. RegulAItion, a UCL incubated company, founded in 2018, designs and develops responsible artificial intelligence, tools and blockchain technologies to enable government, business and consumer digital interconnection.

In 2021 RegulAItion will lead a cross-sector consortium to deliver a first of its kind, AI-driven data access platform for regulated industries – the AIR Platform. Borne out of a need to address industry challenges, the AIR platform will deliver a ‘generational breakthrough’ to how the private and public sectors operate and interact with each other and it is set to prove instrumental in tackling financial fraud.

About UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

UKRI works with the government to invest over £7 billion a year in research and innovation by partnering with academia and industry to make the impossible, possible. Through the UK’s nine leading academic and industrial funding councils, it creates knowledge with impact.

Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund: The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund aims to bring together the UK’s world leading research with business to meet the major industrial and societal challenges of our time. The fund was created to provide funding and support to UK businesses and researchers, part of the government’s £4.7 billion increase in research and development over the next 4 years. It was designed to ensure that research and innovation takes centre stage in the Government’s modern Industrial Strategy. It is run by UK Research and Innovation.

AIR Platform Collaborators

About Ashurst

Ashurst is a leading global law firm with world class capability and a prestigious global client base. The firm's in-depth understanding of its clients and commitment to providing exceptional standards of service has seen it become a trusted adviser to local and global corporates, financial institutions and governments on all areas of commercial law. The firm's people are its greatest asset and it brings together lawyers of the highest calibre with the technical knowledge, industry experience and regional know-how to provide the incisive advice clients need.

Ashurst has 28 offices in 16 countries and offers the reach and insight of a global network, combined with the knowledge and understanding of local markets. With over 400 partners and a further 1,600 lawyers working across 11 different time zones, the firm is able to respond to clients wherever and whenever required. As a global team, Ashurst has a reputation for successfully managing large and complex multi-jurisdictional transactions, disputes and projects and delivering outstanding outcomes for clients.

About Oasis Loss Modelling Framework (Oasis)

Oasis was founded in 2012 to open-up the world of Catastrophe Modelling. Its mission is to create and foster links throughout the wide community of those interested in modelling catastrophic risks across business, academia, and government.

It is constituted as a not for profit company and owned by close to 30 of the world’s leading insurers, reinsurers and brokers and forms, together with an Associate Member community of over 100 companies and academic institutions, a broad community of organizations dedicated to improving catastrophe loss modelling.

About Wilson Wright

Wilson Wright is an independent accounting, tax and business advisory firm based in the City of London with origins dating back over 125 years and clients ranging from small sole traders to large multi-national groups.

Academic Partners

University College London (UCL)

Professor Philip Treleaven, Director of UK Financial Computing Centre, UCL

The UK Centre for Financial Computing is a collaboration of UCL, LSE, LBS and the major UK investment banks/funds with over 60 PhD students who work with a bank, fund or regulator on software and analytics. Professor Treleaven is principally known for pioneering the use of computational techniques in finance, where his team’s research underpinned much of the early work on automated fraud detection leading to the launch of the highly successful SearchSpace company.

Loughborough University

Professor Ahmet Kondoz Director of Institute for Digital Technologies, Loughborough University London

Dr Safak Dogan, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Digital Technologies, Loughborough University London

Institute for Digital Technologies (IDT) at the Loughborough University’s London campus is a specialised postgraduate teaching, research and enterprise institute that aims to address major digital technological challenges, with a focus on machine learning, data analytics, applied AI, immersive and interactive technologies, Internet of Things, cyber security, privacy protection and autonomous systems. Professor Kondoz and his team of Academics, Research Associates and PhD students have longstanding expertise in the underpinning digital technology research, where they develop cutting-edge solutions, often in collaboration with industry, research institutes and academic teams.