EMEA Daily: FCA Finds Weaknesses in Bank Financial Crime Defenses; UK Financial Regulator Says Next Data Sharing Innovation Is Synthetic Data

In today’s top Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) news, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is concerned about the growing issue of financial crime among challenger banks. Also, the FCA has put out a request to stakeholders to provide input on synthetic data to support innovation.

FCA Says Challenger Banks Need Stronger Financial Crime Defenses

The FCA recently uncovered weaknesses in how challenger banks assess the risk of financial crime. Its analysis found that sometimes the digital banks didn’t thoroughly check their customers’ income and occupation, while other times the banks failed to have financial crime risk assessments in place.

UK Financial Regulator Sees Synthetic Data as Next Step in Data Sharing

Also, the FCA asked its stakeholders for their thoughts on synthetic data and its use as a financial services innovation technique. This type of data could help small firms to better compete with incumbents. “Synthetic data is a privacy-preserving technique that could open up more opportunities for data sharing by generating statistically realistic, but ‘artificial’ data, that is readily accessible,” the FCA said.

EU Nails Down Content Rules of Digital Services Act

The final details of the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) will possibly be decided as early as Friday (April 22), and the content rules are expected to go into effect in 2024. The DSA aims to create a safe digital environment to protects users’ fundamental rights and level the playing field for all businesses.

B2B Startup Retailo Buys eCommerce Platform DXBUY

Retailo, a Saudi Arabia-based company that digitizes retail operations in the Middle East and North Africa has acquired United Arab Emirates-based B2B eCommerce platform DXBUY. With this acquisition, Retailo expects to expand further into the hotel, restaurant and cafe (HORECA) sector of the EMEA region.