Even though it may not feel like it, the concept of compliance is actually quite flexible. It can easily mould itself as per the needs of a particular situation. However, the growing competition has hampered this flexibility to a great extent. Regulatory bodies across the board are imposing stricter frameworks for companies to play with, leaving little or no room for a healthy breathing space. As a result of it, the organizations are struggling to fully comply without hurting their own operations, further leading towards an atmosphere of extreme tension throughout the major sectors. These organizations, nevertheless, are now realizing that technology has an answer for this too. The activities of the recent past indicate towards a growing belief in tech solutions for solving every compliance & regulation related issue. What’s more is that even regulators seem to like how the tech revolution is going about everything, and where it promises to take the compliance industry, but only if it was that easy. The advancement of technology has brought in its own set of complications and for exemplifying it, we don’t have to look beyond the controversial idea of cryptocurrency. When it first arrived on the scene, cryptocurrency looked like a breakthrough for the ages, but it hasn’t quite managed to deliver on that tag yet. This supposed currency for the next-generation, during its journey so far, has remained entangled in some hullabaloo or the other. The obscure nature of cryptocurrency has been very much a part of the problem, as it would create a whole host of challenges for the regulators trying to keep an eye on it. Financial services giant, Mastercard is out to change that once and for all.
Mastercard, in its bid to bring more transparency to the businesses functioning within the cryptocurrency sphere, has acquired CipherTrace, a leading crypto-intelligence platform. The move looks to be largely motivated by the scale on which CipherTrace is bolstering compliance. If reports are true, the platform studies blockchain transactions to put-together insights on more than 900 cryptocurrencies. These insights are then supplied to institutions like banks and exchanges for the purpose of fraud monitoring and overall security. In its statement, Mastercard has expressed a desire to blend CipherTrace’s skill-set with its own cybersecurity setup to create a powerhouse of a system. This system will do it all from helping the clients in managing risk to taking care of their compliance obligations in terms of digital assets.
“With the rapid growth of the digital asset ecosystem comes the need to ensure it is trusted and safe. Our aim is to build upon the complementary capabilities of Mastercard and CipherTrace to do just this,” said Ajay Bhatia, the president of cyber and intelligence branch at Mastercard.