MembEr Spotlight - Four Eyes Financial

Meet Lori Weir, CEO and Co-founder from Four Eyes Financial – one of the latest Canadian RegTech firms to join the CRTA. We asked Lori to tell us a little about her firm and why she joined the CRTA.
​Tell us a little about Four Eyes Financial
 
Four Eyes Financial is a Canadian RegTech company that exists to unify risk data and provide four meaningful views into that data. This is the origin of our name. For investors, that means a client portal that encourages ongoing engagement with their advisor and feedback on how changes are impacting their risk score. For advisors, that means having a way to track KYC updates and monitor clients’ risk profiles for product suitability. For compliance teams, that means having an exception alert dashboard with embedded case management for launching and resolving inquiries into the field. For regulators, that means a window into each of these processes for targeted, quick and painless audits.

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Who are your clients and what types of regulatory challenges are they facing?
 
Four Eyes partners with Canadian investment firms who are tired of living with excruciating operational pain, as they diligently work to meet investment industry regulatory requirements around what is commonly called Tier 1 & 2 Trade Surveillance and KYC/KYP Suitability.
 
What we’ve been hearing supports the IIROC-Accenture 2019 research findings in their report “Enabling the Evolution of Advice in Canada”. We hear again and again from senior executives, advisors and compliance professionals that they support increased regulatory requirements that work in the client’s best interest, however they are challenged to keep up with changing investor profiles, changing payment models and matching them with appropriate product in a scalable, cost-effective way.
 
What type of emerging technology do you think will have the greatest impact on your business/industry?
 
The investment industry has much to gain from Machine Learning and AI. The capabilities they bring have made incredible advances in many industries, including personalizing retail experiences so you never run out of milk, and exponentially improving the use of health science research dollars, as complex associations that cannot be reduced to an equation are made in vastly shorter periods of time.
 
As investment firms centralize risk data, new data streams can be related to existing data currently used to catch offside behaviours. Adding new variables improves prediction, enabling investment firms to automate standard exceptions, gain new predictive insights into advisor behaviour, and look far beyond today’s requirements. Investment firms that want to have the foundation in place to meet tomorrow’s regulatory demands today, are excited about working with us to incorporate the power of Machine Learning and AI.
 
For example, with Reinforcement Learning, our Compliance software Risk7 can modify its parameters based on how compliance supervisors handle exceptions according to the firm’s policies and procedures. Firms love the cost saving of automating inquiries and compliance professionals appreciate focusing their time on alerts that require human judgement to resolve properly.
 
Why did you join the CRTA? How do you think the CRTA will help your business (industry)?
 
Throughout my life, I’ve found great benefit in working to build and strengthen the ecosystems in which my purpose and products exist. A few years ago, I was the volunteer Chair of the ALS Society of Canada; during that time I learned that by bringing together the research, funding, government and client communities we were able to have a much greater impact on our shared mandate. As it relates to the investment industry, regulators, government, firms and vendors are all connected and rely on one another to make sustainable progress for our common purpose – a strong investment industry that promotes the financial wellbeing of Canadians. When I think of the CRTA I am drawn to its efforts to connect all those required to see the investment industry thrive, and I’m motivated to be an active participant.