Corlytics absorbs ING spinoff SparQ

Dublin-based regulatory risk intelligence provider Corlytics has struck a €5 million deal with financial services firm ING Group to acquire the latter's regulatory monitoring spinout SparQ.

SparQ's product is integrated across ING's internal financial services network already, and the corporate isn't losing access with this deal. The product lets organisations implement external regulations more efficiently, for instance by providing audit trails.

Corlytics and ING's businesses are also aligned. Holders of ING financial accounts have access to Corlytics' risk intelligence to protect their assets and identify possible compliance bottlenecks.

SparQ is an existing Corlytics partner, having joined forces initially in 2018. The partners currently collaborate to deploy regulatory information and compliance risk data on behalf of 550 ING customers.

Following the acquisition, SparQ's regulatory compliance software will be fully integrated with Corlytics' existing tech stack. 

John Byrne, Corlytics CEO, expects the deal to create a "unified" platform for managing compliance.

Byrne said: "This acquisition is important – both for the financial services industry and Corlytics. SparQ technologies mean that we can close the regulatory compliance and obligations management loop – in a unified platform to automate, deliver and prove compliance."

In recent years ING has made a few innovation-led carve outs from its global services portfolio. It also spun off Stemly, a Singapore-based decision intelligence outfit, and Pyctor, an Amsterdam-based digital assets infrastructure company.

Rein Graat, chief compliance officer of ING, explained SparQ  initially emerged from the corporate's regulatory R&D programme.

"In 2017, recognising the increasingly complex regulatory landscape, ING assembled a team of subject matter experts to develop innovative technology and transform regulatory change and policy management," Graat said.

"The focus has been on end-to-end process integration, audit trailing, and global standardisation. SparQ has materially contributed to our efforts of demonstrating being in control.

"Corlytics became a key partner in 2018 and it is fitting that, after the global roll-out internally, the next stage of SparQ’s journey will be with the company that can bring its development to the next maturity level of being an industry-wide leading platform.