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Glossary

Every acronym used anywhere in the Regulus docs. One line each; links to the page where the term is explained in full where applicable.

A

  • A2A — Agent-to-Agent. ADK's JSON-RPC protocol for agents to call each other. See Services → A2A.
  • ADK — Agent Development Kit. Google's open-source toolkit for building AI agents.
  • AI Act — EU AI Act. Regulation EU 2024/1689 governing AI systems in the EU.
  • Annex III — Schedule of high-risk AI systems under the EU AI Act.
  • ADC — Application Default Credentials. How Google client libraries authenticate on a developer's machine.

B

  • BIC — Business Identifier Code. The 8 or 11-character SWIFT identifier of a bank. Built-in Regulus PII pattern.

C

  • CMEK — Customer-Managed Encryption Keys. You hold the key, the cloud provider uses it via KMS. See Data residency.
  • Consumer Duty — FCA outcomes-based standard for retail financial services (FG22/5, PS22/9). See Compliance → FCA SYSC.

D

  • DORA — Digital Operational Resilience Act. EU Regulation 2022/2554. See Compliance → DORA.
  • DPA — Data Processing Agreement (GDPR Art. 28). Also: UK Data Protection Act 2018.
  • DPIA — Data Protection Impact Assessment (GDPR Art. 35).
  • DPO — Data Protection Officer (GDPR Arts. 37–39).
  • DSPT — NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit.

E

  • EDPB — European Data Protection Board. Coordinates EU national DPAs.
  • EHDS — European Health Data Space. EU Regulation 2025/327.
  • ENISA — EU Agency for Cybersecurity. Major NIS2 authority.

F

  • FCA — Financial Conduct Authority. UK conduct regulator for financial services.

G

  • GCP — Google Cloud Platform.
  • GDPR — General Data Protection Regulation. EU 2016/679. See Compliance → GDPR.
  • GHCR — GitHub Container Registry. Regulus' reference container images ship here.

H

  • HITL — Human-in-the-Loop. The pattern where a human approves an action before the system proceeds. Implemented in ADK via ToolConfirmation.

I

  • IBAN — International Bank Account Number. Built-in Regulus PII pattern.
  • ICO — Information Commissioner's Office. UK data-protection regulator.
  • ICT — Information and Communication Technology. The term DORA and NIS2 use for what most engineers call "IT systems."
  • IDTA — International Data Transfer Agreement. UK's analogue to EU SCCs.

J

  • JSON-RPC — Transport ADK's A2A protocol uses.

K

  • KMS — Key Management Service. The encryption-key broker (GCP KMS, AWS KMS).

L

  • LEI — Legal Entity Identifier. 20-character ISO 17442 code identifying a legal entity in financial markets.

M

  • MCP — Model Context Protocol. ADK supports both A2A and MCP for inter-agent / agent-to-tool communication.
  • MiFID II — Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II. EU investment-services rulebook.

N

  • NHS — National Health Service (UK).
  • NHS Number — 10-digit UK patient identifier. Built-in Regulus PII pattern.
  • NINO — National Insurance Number. UK SSN-equivalent. Built-in Regulus PII pattern.
  • NIS2 — Network and Information Security Directive 2. EU 2022/2555. See Compliance → NIS2.

P

  • PII — Personally Identifiable Information.
  • PRA — Prudential Regulation Authority. UK prudential supervisor for banks and insurers.
  • Postcode — UK postcode. Built-in Regulus PII pattern.

R

  • Regtech — Regulatory technology. See What is regtech?.
  • RPO — Recovery Point Objective. How much data loss is tolerable in an incident (used in DORA audit schema).
  • RTO — Recovery Time Objective. How quickly service must return.

S

  • SCC — Standard Contractual Clauses. EU template contracts for international data transfers.
  • SIRI — Serious Incident Requiring Investigation. NHS DSPT incident classification.
  • SMF — Senior Management Function. FCA / PRA Senior Managers Regime responsibility code.
  • SS1/23 — PRA Supervisory Statement 1/23. Model Risk Management.
  • SS2/21 — PRA Supervisory Statement 2/21. Outsourcing & Third-Party Risk.
  • SSO — Single sign-on.
  • SYSC — Senior Management Arrangements, Systems and Controls. FCA Handbook section. See Compliance → FCA SYSC.

T

  • ToolConfirmation — ADK primitive for human-in-the-loop confirmation of a tool action. Regulus dual control uses this.

U

V

  • Vertex AI — Google Cloud's managed ML / LLM platform; ADK's reference model backend.
  • Vertex AI Agent Engine — Vertex's managed runtime for deployed ADK agents.