PwC takes home Regulation Asia consulting firm of the year award

PwC has taken the consulting firm of the year title at the second Regulation Asia Awards for Excellence, with Synpulse, KPMG, and BearingPoint among the other category winners.

Zafferano’s in Singapore has played host to the second annual Regulation Asia Awards for Excellence – inaugurated last year to honour the legal, tech and consulting firms and other bodies which have shaped the Asia Pacific’s regulatory landscape over the prior year. Following KPMG’s success at the inaugural event, its fellow Big Four competitor PwC has this year taken the ‘Consulting Firm of the Year’ crown.

‘Highly Commended’ in the category in 2018 – specifically for its work in the anti-money laundering and KYC segments – PwC Singapore’s consulting practice was elevated to the top spot this year for in particular its stand-out performances in risk and regulatory advisory and implementation services, data governance, financial risk management and quantitative modelling, forensics, dispute advisory, and financial crime.

The 2019 judges – comprised of a panel of risk, regulatory and compliance industry experts – noted PwC’s deep capabilities in the APAC region and strengths across a range of services, enabling the firm to serve a broad variety of financial services firms in developing and managing end-to-end implementations across a wide range of regulatory themes. The panel also cited PwC’s extensive in experience engaging with regulators and industry bodies.

In addition, PwC was acknowledged for the value of its financial crime unit across Asia Pacific. “This operational capability is unique in the region being solely focused on financial crime and it clearly differentiates PwC’s delivery capability from the more general service delivery centres other consulting firms offer,” one judge stated, further commending PwC’s efforts to bring together member firms from other jurisdictions to fight financial crime.

Synpulse meanwhile – which earlier this year expanded its regional partnership team – was highly commended in the consulting firm category, adding to a growing list of accolades. The management consultancy was recognised for its ability to leverage key partnerships while demonstrating strong leadership and competencies in the areas of operational performance, regulatory compliance, risk management, business innovation and market growth.

KPMG, however, didn’t go home empty-handed – this year awarded for ‘Best Solution in Cybersecurity’, while BearingPoint, which was spun out of KPMG, took home the ‘Outstanding Project’ award for Tax Reporting – recognised for the implementation of its tax reporting solution FiTAX, which enables automated regulatory reporting processes for financial institutions and counts Standard Chartered among its major local and international adopters.

For the award-winning project, a team of BearingPoint experts out of Singapore and Switzerland supported a major international bank with “all aspects of the implementation, from architectural design decisions, through data mapping and set-up, to testing and ultimately go life.” BearingPoint Regtech board member Ronald Frey stated the firm’s pride in receiving its second Regulation Award, “as it mirrors the success of this large FiTAX implementation project.”

“BearingPoint demonstrated deep expertise in large scale transformation of complex operational processes and policy changes, leading to the successful implementation of the solution, on time and in budget,” commented Regulation Asia co-founder and Executive Chairman Brad Maclean, who added that the project showcased how the firm had met the need for a sophisticated solution to address the challenges of producing high quality QI, FATCA and CRS reports.

According to Regulation Asia, more than 140 representatives from 60 firms attended this year’s ceremony. “As the regulatory environment continues to mature, with a greater focus – beyond implementation – towards quality assurance and execution, it’s clear that Asia is starting to take a greater leadership role to define the regulatory agenda and the increasingly important role technology will play in meeting both new and existing regulations,” concluded Maclean.