Funding for a digital transformation project of the Financial Oversight Authority (ASF) submitted in December 2024 under the call for projects related to the Smart Growth, Digital Transformation and Financial Instruments Programme (PoCIDIF), has been approved.
"The digital transformation of ASF is one of my priorities, established when I took office. I am confident that this project, the first financed from European funds at ASF level, will contribute significantly, through the creation of new digital tools, both to the transformation and modernisation of ASF and to improved transparency, efficiency and accessibility of the services offered to consumers, as well as to the non-banking financial sector. I want to thank my colleagues from the ASF who contributed professionally to the development of the project, as well as the specialists of the Authority for the Digital Transformation of Romania for support to drawing up specific documentation," ASF Chairman Alexandru Petrescu is quoted as saying in an ASF press release.
The project "Digital Access for Citizens and Companies to Investments by Ensuring a Sustainable Financial Market - DACCIA PIFS" is worth a total of RON 96.4 million, to be implemented in three years, designed to redefine the way in which ASF carries out its activity and interacts with the non-banking financial market.
The implementation of this important project is said to be a significant step in modernising and streamlining the regulatory, authorisation, supervision and oversignt functions of ASF, including petitions and alternative dispute resolution, as well as in the area of financial education. The number of annual users of the project is estimated at over 160,000.
The initiative comes in response to the need for digital transformation of internal work processes identified in all ASF business functions and to the new challenges in the process of adopting the European regulatory framework that supports the objective of integrating new concepts on digital finance and sustainable finance.
"As I said when taking over the position of first deputy chair of ASF, I have two priorities - transparency and digital transformation. While the first year of my term of office was dedicated to the transparency process, this year we are focusing on digital transformation. The approval of the ASF digital transformation project is a decisive and extremely important moment for our institution and for the entire non-banking financial sector. As a project manager, I am confident that this initiative will trigger a major reform, with an impact both internally, by modernising processes and workflows, and externally, in the interaction with consumers and market participants," said Gabriel-Ioan Avramescu, ASF first deputy chair and project manager.
The general objective of the project is the implementation of an integrated information system to support ASF's efforts to develop and diversify the electronic public services offered to the businesses, the public administration and the general public through internal processes optimised by digital technologies.
The implementation of this project will allow the ASF to respond promptly to the challenges of the financial market that are in a continuous evolution, benefitting from the advantages of new technologies.
Among the benefits of implementing this extensive project are improved quality of services offered to the businesses and the public and the expansion of the offer of online services; streamlining the public communication of the ASF on the non-banking financial market and in relation to the relevant international authorities - European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA); lower costs/consumption of resources - material, human, financial - for solving the requests addressed to ASF by the supervised entities; streamlining and aligning the operational flow at the level of the institution with modern tools used at European level, by digitally transforming its internal analysis flow and efficiently allocating resources to value-added activities for the achievement of the institution's objectives.
Also, the digital transformation of ASF will lead to better oversight by building an integrated database between the three sectors regulated and supervised by the FSA; supporting the regulatory activity based on data of the non-banking financial market by making superior use of the large volumes of data collected; achieving a higher degree of transparency of the ASF activity and access of regulated entities to the services offered by ASF, as well as increasing their satisfaction and trust in the institution's activity.
At the same time, the degree of data protection and security of the information processed by the ASF and ensuring compliance with national and international standards and regulations will be increased, and the institutional reaction to market developments, legislative changes, the extension of powers and the adoption of new standards and procedures for regulation/authorisation/oversight/control facilitated by digital technologies will be streamlined.
The Financial Oversight Authority is a national authority established for the regulation and oversight of Romania's insurance markets, private pensions, as well as the capital market, which totals over 10 million participants.
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