Top banks back $24 million in fintech Acin with operational risk
A consortium of top US, European and UK banks has backed a $24 million Series B round in operational risk network Acin.
The consortium of banks includes JPMorgan, Citi, BNP Paribas, Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group.
The financing round was also supported by existing investors Notion Capital, Talis Capital and Fitch Ventures.
The firm currently counts double-digit Tier 1 banks as clients, and uses its network to quantify their operational and non-financial risks and controls through a standardized, industry-wide inventory. The net result promises significant balance sheet benefits by reducing the operational risk capital that banks are required to hold in the future
Paul Ford, CEO and founder of Acin, comments: “Acin was created to make the industry safer by enabling risk control content to be transformed into data and shared collaboratively, through anonymised benchmarking and sharing of best practice. This investment shows that the market shares our vision to transform risk management with data across the entire financial sector.This strategic consortium is a testament to the shared vision of banks and a strong signal that there is a shared commitment to managing operational risk from industry leaders. “
Kirsy Rutter, fintech investment director at Lloyds, says: “Our investment in Acin, a leader in risk and control management, demonstrates our commitment through our new fintech investment team to invest in companies that will enhance the group’s data and technology capabilities. Collaborating , we will be able to use the Acin platform to benchmark our control frameworks and deliver greater computerized risk management across the group.”
Ryan Hayward, head of strategic investments, Europe and Asia, Barclays, adds: “A data-driven approach to operational risk can be transformative in creating consistency across different risk areas. Acin’s product offering enables businesses to take a more holistic and unbiased view of exposure relative to the market, which supports the industry in increasing safety in global financial markets.”
Notes to editors
About Acin
Founded in 2018, the Acin platform is the defining global operational risk network for connecting and quantifying data from the world’s largest financial institutions.
Acin’s data analysis capabilities reveal gaps, duplication and granular areas of weakness, enabling faster remediation at lower costs for completeness and optimized operations. This insight gives member companies exponentially deeper insights across their risk management landscape and against the best practices of others.
Acin makes the financial sector safer, delivering prioritization and acceleration of value to transformation and simplification programs, plus ongoing dynamic risk management value across all three lines of defence, enabling significant operational cost savings. Combined with significant contributions to loss/penalty avoidance and the ability to demonstrate industry benchmarking and progress against stated targets, it is now possible to renew discussions at both board and regulator level around residual risk and capital allocation.
Acin has achieved global industry recognition, including Risk.net’s OpRisk Innovation of the Year 2022 (second consecutive year), Best ESG Risk Data Provider 2022, FS Tech Awards Risk Management Software of the Year 2021, and was named one of the most innovative regtech companies in 2019 and 2020.
