How pTools is Using AI to Shape the Future of Market Information

The impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the finance industry is significant and it is transforming many aspects of business operations and product offerings. Our clients and partners have been seeking AI-driven automation for compliance and regulatory tasks, such as Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) and International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) issuance, sanctions screening and legal entity events analysis to enhance scalability and efficiency in handling complex, compliance-sensitive processes.  

pTools addresses these needs by integrating AI into existing solutions, aiming to automate complex tasks and ensure compliance with global data security, sanctions, Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML), LEI and ISIN issuance and announcements of regulations and processes. 

pTools Software is celebrating 25 years of delivering advanced application software solutions to exchanges and central counterparty clearing houses (CCPs) and as we look ahead in 2025, we reaffirm our commitment to innovation. 

AI is centre stage in the development of our solutions and is shaping the future of Market Information. In data security, AI has revolutionised the way organisations identify, assess, report and respond to threats. By leveraging advanced algorithms and machine learning, AI enables real-time analysis of vast datasets, uncovering patterns and anomalies that would otherwise go unnoticed.  

At pTools, our secure Risk Intelligence System offers a streamlined, intuitive approach to risk management. This RAG solution categorises risks into clear, actionable levels — Red for high risk, Amber for medium risk and Green for low risk — empowering organisations to prioritise their actions. The system also uses AI to assess uploaded documents or files, evaluating their reliability, consistency and identifying errors in language and naming conventions. These capabilities demonstrate how AI-powered risk intelligence is powerful and essential for modern application processes within the global financial services industry.  

In recent years, the demand for robust sanctions screening has driven the need for enhanced data security and risk intelligence. The traditional approach of checking participants for sanctions risks during onboarding is outdated and leaves organisations vulnerable to serious regulatory and even criminal liabilities. Regulatory shifts now stress the importance of conducting sanctions checks during onboarding and when offboarding participants. However, this is widely regarded as insufficient, as it fails to address the responsibility of monitoring continuously for bad actors already in the system. 

This has sparked a critical shift from traditional, once-off or ad-hoc risk mitigation and screening processes to continuous and dynamic approaches. pTools leverages AI to help client organisations adopt an ongoing or persistent screening approach to meet evolving regulatory expectations and ensure a proactive stance in identifying and addressing potential risks. pTools' Persistent Sanctions Screening System is a critical component of our advanced risk  intelligence. It addresses the continuous and automatic monitoring of individuals, entities and assets across an organisation. Unlike traditional batch querying, the system operates in real-time, leveraging data from global sanctions lists such as Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK) and United Nations (UN), while integrating third-party, web-based and organisation-specific data accumulated over time. 

This approach helps organisations create and maintain dynamic internal grey, white and black lists, which enhance the ability to detect risks and threats at the system's periphery. The process ensures real-time compliance and strengthens data integrity through structured sources like LEI and unstructured web data, offering a comprehensive layer of risk assessment. Advanced risk intelligence algorithms, incorporating persistent sanctions screening, AI, Internet Protocol address (IP) and session monitoring provide organisations with a better view of potential threats.  

The integration of AI into market information solutions has enhanced the understanding and analysis of LEI, ISIN, announcements, associated regulations and data significantly.  This progress has paved the way for the development of tailored AI solutions that are equivalent to full-time employees, capable of analysing large datasets, documents and regulatory policies with efficiency.  

At pTools, this innovation incorporates our Document Assistance AI Solution, a secure, customised AI system that integrates seamlessly with our legacy LEI, ISIN and Announcement solutions. It empowers clients to access precise information on compliance and new regulations mandated by global supervisory bodies. 

The Document Assistance AI Solution goes beyond basic analysis. It transforms vast amounts of information into engaging, interactive dashboards, reports and visual charts. These tools help clients to make informed decisions quickly, while reducing the time and resources traditionally required for manual review of extensive announcements and datasets. The solution also includes a visual and interactive "Characterisation" feature for LEI, ISIN and Announcement management. This feature introduces a human-like persona to the AI system, creating a simulation where users can see, hear and interact with the AI as if engaging with a person or the original author of the document. This immersive and user-friendly experience enhances accessibility and engagement, making the solution particularly appealing to clients, while driving quicker adoption in the market. 

Finally, our goal in developing and deploying AI-driven solutions is not simply to leverage AI but to do so in a way that is secure, compliant with the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and scalable. Our RAG has been described by one client as "the only secure RAG we have seen and we have trialled them all!".  

Our ability to prevent the leakage of client data into the broader Large Language Model (LLM) environment and our guarantee that the powerful LLM functionality is focused and error-free is key to meeting the AI challenges for pTools and our clients in 2025 and beyond.  

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pTools is a leading provider of market information services for stock exchanges, CCPs and related organisations including LOUs, NNAs, CSDs, CCPs and central banks. pTools provides packaged software, bespoke solutions, outsourced and support services for applications including Risk Intelligence, Persistent Sanctions Screening, LEI and ISIN issuance, corporate actions and announcements, ESG validation, asset tokenisation and listing. With offices in Dublin, London and Bangalore, pTools’ clients include LSEG, Qatar Central Bank and Strate South Africa. pTools works across technologies with specific capability in AI and NLP, blockchain and notarisation, digital risk mitigation/sanctions risk scoring and data quality management. pTools delivers solutions on-Premise, on-Cloud and as-a-Service. pTools is a long-term partner of the World Federation of Exchanges and has additional partnerships with global technology providers IBM, AWS, Microsoft and global eLearning provider Intuition. 

For more information, please get in touch with: Suraj Pandey, Business Development Manager, pTools Software - [email protected] 

To gain insights on our solutions, please visit: www.ptools.com