Article originally appeared at FinTech Global.
In an era of increasing regulatory complexity, artificial intelligence (AI) has become essential in enhancing compliance efforts, offering new capabilities for managing and automating regulatory tasks. Among the leaders in this field is Red Oak Compliance Solutions, a company that has transformed advertising and marketing review processes.
For many financial services firms, keeping up with constant regulatory changes is a major challenge. AI has emerged in the space, offering the ability to speed up formerly cumbersome processes.
Now, it is transforming compliance processes to help firms get ahead by efficiently analysing vast amounts of regulatory data, predicting changes, and adapting systems in real-time to ensure adherence to evolving regulations.
Red Oak Compliance Solutions, founded in 2010 by a team of compliance and technology experts, is leading the way in the AI transformation.
Mike Lubansky, Senior Vice President of Product Management at Red Oak, explained to FinTech Global how the firm is leveraging AI to revolutionise compliance.
Inside Red Oak’s Pioneering Product
Red Oak’s compliance offering is multi-faceted. They provide a subscription-based online service (SaaS model) with a comprehensive suite of tools compliant with SEC Rule 17A-4.
This software meets the dynamic needs of both small and large financial firms. Their flagship advertising review software helps financial firms minimise risk, cut costs, and boost efficiency in their compliance review processes.
“Red Oak has designed a best-in-class solution for advertising and marketing review that has been adopted by leading firms in the industry because of the flexibility that the platform provides for allowing firms to set and manage their workflows in a highly configurable and intelligent manner,” Lubansky explained.
By streamlining advertising review approvals and regulatory reporting, Red Oak’s software significantly enhances operational workflows. Clients typically see a 35% reduction in approval times and a 70% decrease in touchpoints during the review process, with many achieving even greater improvements.
Red Oak’s software is user-friendly and quick to implement, with many clients fully operational within just two weeks.
The product allows users to configure workflows, design efficiency-enhancing rules, and apply an intelligent lexicon to flag problematic phrases. It features a robust Disclosures Manager and Disclosure Intelligence module to scan advertising documents, ensuring proper disclosures based on firm-specific rules.
“AI enhances the above based on the ability to now be able to pass advertising submissions through Red Oak’s AI Review (beta) module that can detect phrases that may be problematic from a compliance perspective due to language that may be misleading, promissory or otherwise non-compliant,” added Lubansky. “This real-time feedback can be used by the submitter of marketing content to revise their advertising material to become more compliant before submitting onto the compliance approver, thereby reducing back and forth in the process, and saving valuable time in allowing these marketing pieces to be utilised for their intended purpose.”
Lubansky also highlighted the offering’s tailored and flexible approach to marketing submissions. He pointed out that the prompts provided by Red Oak are designed to accommodate various types of marketing submissions.
Additionally, these prompts are aligned with the appropriate regulatory guidance and the firm’s specific policies and procedures. This ensures that each marketing submission is compliant and customised to meet specific needs, making Red Oak’s services highly adaptable and efficient for its clients.
But more than that, the firm embeds its solution into a vigorous workflow solution which differentiates it from others in the space.
“Aside from a tailored approach with appropriate guardrails, the Red Oak solution is tying this AI functionality into a robust, configurable workflow solution which is missing from many of the others in the space,” said Lubansky. “While AI is going to be an important feature going forward, the core functionality can’t be neglected, and this isn’t in place for some of the other players, especially the newer insurgents.”
The future
Looking ahead to H2 2024 and beyond, Red Oak aims to retain its position as an innovator in both the AI and compliance space.
The US firm, known for its innovative approach, has consistently secured a spot on prestigious lists such as the AI FinTech 100, INC 5000’s Fastest Growing Companies, the RegTech 100’s Top Global Regulatory Compliance Innovators, and the Financial Times’ Fastest Growing Private Firms.
Remarking on their future plans, Lubansky said, “We are looking for ways that AI will help us add efficiencies into our own operations and into customers’ general utilisation of our suite of products.”
With over a decade of innovative solutions, Red Oak is poised to enhance the sector and leverage AI to elevate compliance.
