eflow launches RegCheck to cut compliance tech costs

Financial institutions could be spending up to 30% more than necessary on compliance technology because of fragmented vendor stacks, according to analysis from compliance software provider eflow. The firm has launched a new assessment service, RegCheck, to help companies identify duplicated systems and consolidation opportunities.

RegCheck is positioned as a complementary audit of a firm's compliance technology setup. It reviews areas such as trade surveillance, electronic communications surveillance, and best execution, and examines operational processes where multiple tools may be creating parallel workflows.

The launch comes as mid-market financial firms face pressure to keep technology budgets down while compliance expectations rise. Surveillance and monitoring have also become a bigger focus as trading desks adopt more automated, data-driven methods. Regulators and market participants are paying closer attention to controls around trading behaviour and communications.

eflow's analysis draws on recent client migrations in which firms replaced multiple systems with a single platform. It points to repeated examples of duplicated spend where institutions run separate products for trade surveillance, best execution, and monitoring. This approach can increase data-handling work across teams and complicate investigations when information sits in separate systems.

In one example, a mid-market firm reduced annual compliance technology spending by 29% after consolidating its trade surveillance and best execution systems onto eflow's platform, while maintaining full regulatory coverage.

Other customer examples included a US-based firm that cut annual compliance costs by 22% after consolidating onto the same platform. eflow also cited a UK asset manager that saved tens of thousands of pounds a year by moving away from legacy systems.

Vendor consolidation

Financial firms often build compliance functions over time, adding point solutions as regulatory obligations evolve and business lines change. This can leave institutions with separate tools that ingest similar data and generate overlapping alerts. It can also increase integration work for technology teams, which must manage interfaces, data quality, and access controls across multiple suppliers.

RegCheck is designed to identify overlap and simplification options across surveillance, communications monitoring, and best execution. eflow said the service gives compliance and technology leaders a clearer view of where spending sits and where processes repeat, and positions it as a way to reduce complexity without lowering oversight standards.

"As AI adoption accelerates and regulatory complexity intensifies, mid-market firms are scrutinising every pound of compliance technology spending," said Ben Parker, chief executive officer of eflow.

"Our data consistently reveals the same issue: firms are overpaying for fragmented systems that create operational inefficiencies alongside unnecessary costs. Running separate vendors for trade surveillance, eComms surveillance and best execution-once considered standard practice-doesn't just cost more, it creates data silos, duplicates workflows, and makes investigations slower," Parker said.

Operational workload

Alongside cost reduction, eflow is also using operational metrics to argue that consolidation can change how compliance teams manage daily volumes of surveillance alerts. Large alert volumes can drive staffing needs and affect investigation turnaround times. How alert parameters are tuned can also influence how much time analysts spend clearing false positives.

One example involved a UK-based broker using eflow's Sandbox environment to adjust alert parameters. eflow said alert volumes fell by 69%, from 4,604 alerts across 25 million trades to 2,922 alerts across 53 million trades, even though trading activity more than doubled. It linked the change to lower analyst workloads and faster investigations.

Parker said integrated platforms can improve both budgets and workflows. "The firms achieving the best outcomes are those consolidating onto integrated platforms that deliver multiple regulatory capabilities from a unified environment. A 30% cost reduction whilst improving operational efficiency isn't a trade-off-it's the outcome of smarter technology architecture," he said.

Founded in 2004, eflow sells software for market abuse surveillance, best execution, transaction-cost analysis, transaction reporting, and electronic communications surveillance. It serves more than 140 clients across five continents, across both buy-side and sell-side firms. RegCheck is available now for institutions reviewing compliance technology spend and considering vendor consolidation.