Strategic acquisition strengthens Ascent’s market leadership position in compliance automation and obligations management solutions for financial services
[Chicago, February 8, 2024] — Ascent Technologies, a leading provider of AI-enabled compliance automation solutions for financial services companies, today announced it has acquired Waymark, a UK-based provider of horizon scanning and compliance management workflow solutions.
This strategic move follows Ascent’s recent acquisition by Edgewater Equity Partners. The integration of Ascent and Waymark creates a comprehensive solution for horizon scanning and obligations management, establishing a new benchmark for managing regulatory risk.
Waymark’s advanced horizon scanning tools augment Ascent’s industry-leading obligations management technology, and the combined company now offers full regulatory coverage of the US, the EU and UK. This combination underscores Ascent’s commitment to driving growth, fostering innovation, and expanding its service offering.
“Ascent’s technology quickly and efficiently identifies relevant regulatory obligations, a critical task for navigating the intricate, ever-changing regulatory landscape,” noted Chris Junker, Ascent CEO. “With the addition of Waymark’s technology, particularly its horizon scanning functions, Ascent now serves up insights into where regulations may be headed as well as a precise, timely and actionable picture of current regulatory demands.”
Powerful Obligations Identification and Horizon Scanning for Automated Compliance Management
Ascent now automates two critical and resource-intensive components of regulatory compliance for financial services firms – horizon scanning and the identification of regulatory obligations tailored to each firm’s business.
Compliance organizations traditionally have reviewed an endless deluge of regulatory documents to identify and analyze applicable rule changes. The Ascent platform replaces these slow, costly, manual processes with patented AI that monitors the financial services regulatory landscape in real time, identifies rule changes and obligations that apply to a company, and notifies stakeholders of applicable rule changes and obligations.
“Knowing one’s regulatory obligations is foundational for financial services firms striving to adhere to evolving regulations,” explained Jon Leitner, President of Ascent. “Once organizations use Ascent to understand current-state regulations, the next step is to anticipate and prepare for upcoming regulatory changes. This is why Waymark horizon scanning fits so well with Ascent.”
Customer Ian Hollowbread, COO – Digital Innovation at ING said that, “Ascent is at the forefront of the AI regulatory revolution. Ascent’s processing intelligence helps firms understand their regulatory obligations with precision. In combination with Waymark’s deep horizon scanning capabilities, we believe that this merger provides the potential to offer both the depth and breadth to meet the market needs for effective, comprehensive risk management.”
Mark Holmes, founder and CEO of Waymark, expressed enthusiasm about the acquisition, stating, “This partnership is a game-changer for the industry. Our combined strengths deliver an advanced compliance automation solution for our customers who now have access to the best US and Canadian regulatory content, while Ascent significantly expands its coverage in the UK and EU.”
