iComply Investor Services (iComply), a RegTech software company focused on creating enterprise solutions that reduce the burden of financial, regulatory and compliance requirements, is today announcing that Jeff Bandman has joined the company’s advisory board.
“The first time I saw Jeff testify during an SEC hearing, I realized we shared a common view of how blockchain can be used to programmatically enforce compliance into the transaction of capital. It’s an honor to have his experience as a regulator, innovator, and technologist as we leverage blockchain to build a better capital market on integrity and immutable transparency,” said Matthew Unger, CEO, and Founder of iComply.
Bandman is currently the Founder and Principal of Bandman Advisors, a consulting and advisory practice focused on innovation and regulation in financial services with special expertise in FinTech and RegTech.
Prior to forming Bandman Advisors, Bandman served in senior leadership roles at the CFTC, including serving as its first FinTech Advisor and founding director of LabCFTC. He also led FinTech and RegTech coordination with domestic and international regulators, chaired an international regulator workstream on post-trade digital innovation, and chaired the CFTC staff blockchain, virtual currency, and FinTech working group, as well as leading the CFTC’s Division of Clearing and Risk, which oversees several of the world’s largest clearinghouses.
“When Matthew reached out, I was immediately intrigued, it seemed like an ideal use of blockchain—building compliance into the tokens themselves. As a former regulator, this resonated with me. Making tools of this kind available to the public will help to create a culture of compliance,” said Jeff Bandman, Principal at Bandman Advisors.
iComply’s automated compliance protocol, “Prefacto Compliance,” for securities regulation enables ICO issuers, security token platforms, licensed stock exchanges and investors to launch and trade coins or tokens in compliance with global securities, identity, and privacy regulations.
“Today, most data and reporting comes into regulators at the end of the day, or else the next day or even later—at the end of a month or quarter, and so on. Regulators are therefore seeing events in the rear-view mirror, well after they have already occurred. With this next-generation technology and the ability to harness real-time data from distributed ledgers, future regulators may be able to monitor events as they unfold…to see through the windshield instead of through their rear-view mirror.,” said Bandman in his October 2017 testimony to the SEC Investor Advisory Committee.
iComply’s Prefacto Compliance protocol enables blockchains to assess and report on both the buy and the sell side before a transaction executes. This consolidates auditing into a single immutable ledger of compliance.
“Blockchain offers revolutionary potential for decentralized, distributed systems where users can own and control their own data. They can determine themselves who is or is not trusted … The investor decides who sees her personal and financial data, her investment and transaction history, instead of relying on a third party financial institution to transfer her information, or having to start over and reenter all the information every time,” continued Bandman in his October 2017 SEC testimony.
“It was especially important to us to keep identity information separate from the compliance and transaction ledgers to avoid another Equifax or EDGAR situation. Our iComplyID product acts as a portable KYC (know-your-customer) solution for digital identity management in financial services and government applications,” said Unger.
iComply’s software enables reporting on the sources of funds that come from a blockchain ledger in real time, supporting anti-money-laundering (AML) and anti-terrorist-financing (ATF) efforts of financial institutions and governments more securely and cost-effectively. Since Bloomberg Law announced the release of the iComply Prefacto Protocol for the Ethereum blockchain, the company is the world’s first-to-market global regulatory automation service for blockchain securities.