Equals picks Aiimi for DSAR compliance under UK GDPR

Equals has selected Aiimi as its compliance partner for data subject access requests, with the agreement covering DSAR management under UK GDPR rules.

Aiimi will work with the payments company's data protection officer and IT team to help it respond within the one-month regulatory deadline. Equals is adopting Aiimi's software through a cloud-based deployment model.

The move comes as financial services groups face growing pressure over how they handle requests from individuals seeking access to their personal data. The Information Commissioner's Office has reported a 15% rise in DSAR-related complaints in the sector, while penalties for failures can reach £17.5 million or 4% of annual turnover, whichever is higher.

For firms handling large volumes of sensitive financial information, DSARs can be resource-intensive. Requests often require companies to search emails, documents and internal systems, identify material within scope, and remove third-party information before disclosure.

The partnership is intended to reduce the operational burden on Equals' data protection team and lower the risk of missed deadlines or errors. Equals processes more than £60 billion a year and says thousands of businesses use its platform to move money in more than 140 currencies.

Aiimi's DSAR software includes automated redaction of third-party data, duplicate removal, email thread analysis, communication tools for exchanges with data subjects, and an audit trail for compliance records. These functions are designed to reduce the manual work involved in preparing responses.

Compliance pressure

The decision reflects a wider challenge for financial services groups as scrutiny of data handling continues to increase. DSARs have grown more complex as companies store more information across different systems and communication channels, making retrieval and review harder for internal teams.

Under the arrangement, Equals wants to shift some of the repetitive parts of the process into software so staff can spend more time on oversight and judgment. That approach is becoming more common in regulated sectors, where companies are trying to contain compliance costs without weakening controls.

Steve Salvin, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Aiimi, said: "We've seen the volume of disclosure requests surge. Nowhere is it more vital to deliver these responses compliantly than in a highly regulated industry like financial services, where information is extremely sensitive. But completing a DSAR manually is a repetitive, fatiguing task, prone to error. Aiimi's platform uses AI to automate time-consuming parts of the DSAR process and help data protection teams complete week-long tasks in minutes."

He said the work is intended to ease pressure on specialist teams as request volumes rise.

Salvin added: "This is ultimately about ensuring compliance and saving data protection teams' time for the tasks that most require human oversight. We're excited to be working with Equals as they futureproof their data governance and empower their teams with automation to tackle a challenge that's only growing in importance."

Operational burden

For Equals, the issue goes beyond regulatory fines. Companies handling payments data rely heavily on customer confidence, and weak processes around information requests can create both legal and reputational risks.

Lee Rowles, Data Protection Officer, Equals, said: "At Equals, our clients trust us to protect their data every time they move money through our platform. We treat data governance as core infrastructure, not paperwork. The operational burden to comply with DSAR requests has steadily grown in recent years, requiring more resources from our data protection team, all the way up to senior leadership. We recognised an opportunity to power our DSAR processes with robust automation, scale with demand and reinforce our compliance practices."

Equals reviewed multiple providers before choosing Aiimi. The selection suggests specialist DSAR software is becoming a more established part of compliance operations rather than a niche tool used only by the largest institutions.

Financial services firms have been under sustained pressure to tighten data governance, particularly where personal information moves across several platforms and jurisdictions. In that environment, the ability to track what data is held, identify what must be disclosed, and prove how a request was handled has become a core operational issue.

Rowles added: "Of all the providers we looked at, Aiimi's solution stood out. It was rigorous, intuitive, and built to the high standards we require. This partnership will free up our team to focus on higher-value data protection work, while ensuring we can confidently meet ICO expectations."