IBM Buys Promontory Financial Group

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: IBM said Thursday it plans to acquire compliance consulting firm Promontory Financial Group to bring more financial regulatory expertise to Watson's cognitive computing platform. Promontory is a global consulting operation with an aim of helping banks manage the ever-increasing regulation and risk management requirements in the financial sector. With that in mind, IBM wants to use the industry expertise of Promontory's workforce -- which is made up of ex-regulators and banking executives -- to teach Watson all about regulation, risk and compliance. IBM is also using the deal to create a new subsidiary called Watson Financial Services, which will build cognitive tools for things things like tracking regulatory obligations, financial risk modeling, surveillance, anti-money laundering detection systems. "This is a workload ideally suited for Watson's cognitive capabilities intended to allow financial institutions to absorb the regulatory changes, understand their obligations, and close gaps in systems and practices to address compliance requirements more quickly and efficiently," IBM said in a press release.

Botson

[invictusvoyd]

financial regulatory expertise to Watson's cognitive computing platform.

So that more loopholes can be identified and duly exploited by people who do not care a fcuk about regulations.

Re:

[Theseuss]

Identifying when someone is out of compliance is far easier than figuring out what to do with a loophole, let alone detecting a loophole autonomously.

Re:

[invictusvoyd]

yeah riight .. enron

Crapoulus: the Forbin Project

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like IBM is concocting the sort of financially astute, legally hair-splitting corporate overmind they think is needed to preserve their grey-suited existence into the 21st century. Wonder what the old cash register salesman would think of that?

And when the USA IBM's are let go put that virus

[Joe_Dragon]

And when the USA IBM's are let go put that virus on the system that takes the leftover fractions of a penny and put them in there own account.

At first glance...

[Third Position]

I thought the headline read "IBM buys Predatory Financial Group". Which actually seems to be type of financial group IBM would be likely to buy.

Show me the data...

[Bob_Who]

My guess is that they bought this financial because they like how they manage financial DATA as much as money.

Funny money "cash is king" fades into new frontiers of quantum processing and encryption. - And Watson has always been about winning the horse race (or at Jeopardy) by being fast and first.... Its just a hunch but I bet thats what IBM is after in this buyout.

Watson can't appreciate a high salary, but he certainly would if the currency was hot nude data- not money. He devours the best and earliest

Re:

[flargleblarg]

IBM is also getting into cyber in a big way. I hear that the cyber is really big this year.

to Promontory guys

[negrace]

If you work for Promontory, RUN!!! Find a new job ASAP. In 5 years all that's there will be not much left of your company. IBM's idiocy will destroy it all.

Re: to Promontory guys

[Anonymous Coward]

The purpose here is to outsource to Watson (instead of traditional outsourcing to India).

So you are right, they are coming to destroy, but I think that is the plan....

"increasing regulation" ?

[swell]

"ever-increasing regulation and risk management requirements in the financial sector"

Thanks for the chuckle. Yes our government is getting really serious with those big financial institutions. Uh uh, no more 'too big to fail', no more sleazy derivative trading, no more unreasonable bonuses for criminal executives, no more microsecond supercomputer trades in the middle of the night ... Strict regulation all around.

They're probably afraid of Hilary

[rsilvergun]

at the rate she's going she's going to win and while she's not exactly Bernie Sanders what she _is_ is an old school progressive in the form of Richard Nixon (who, for all the horrible things he did is practically Karl Marx by today's standards). There's a very good chance she really will reign in the worst of the corruption. And that means lots and lots of complex laws because in in the real world you can't solve something as complex as fiduciary misconduct with simple no-nonsense gut solutions. At least n

You don't realise

[LordWabbit2]

I think a lot of people are not really aware of how much data banks are sending back to their collective reserve banks and from there on to the UN for "risk" assessment, ie. trying to track down funding of terrorists and other illegal activity (drugs, smuggling etc). Risk and compliance are a big pain in the ass for lots of banks, there are a few systems which try to handle the pain for them, but each has to tailored to fit the bank, which takes time, so most of the current systems in place are home grown.

IBM executives are lost

[f00zbll]

I actually worked in Boston financial sector building compliance systems. I've talked to banks like Wachovia, Bears Stearn and others. It's not a secret how fraud occurs. The crooks at these institutions "break" the compliance system to let things slip through. How do you do that? One way is to edit a rule and blame it on "human error". Another is to get the compliance officer to override a violation. Yet another is to setup complex transactions. The compliance engine can only detect fraud if it has enough

"Training their own replacement"?

[jeffb (2.718)]

Well, this would certainly be new take on that popular business practice.

From a game-theory POV, I suppose this is the best move; if you're convinced AI is going to make your "profession" obsolete, position yourself at the forefront of the transition, so you can cash out on your company's success before all your peers lose their jobs.

So this is the singularity

[Anonymous Coward]

The human race won't be enslaved by artificial intelligence. It will be enslaved by robot bureaucrats. Wish I could say that I look forward to being dominated by our new compliance overlords, but I don't.