Regulatory Reporting Automation Case Study for a Global Bank

Client

A large Global Bank

Product/Solution

SmartReg

What is the big Problem?

A global bank with an extensive presence across the Middle East needed a scalable, robust and configurable regulatory reporting ecosystem covering more than seven regulators. Its existing processes were manual, time-consuming, decentralised and prone to error. As regulators and reporting requirements continued to evolve, keeping pace became increasingly difficult and created the potential for reporting inefficiencies, reputational and operational risk, and higher compliance costs.

Challenges with the current process:

Manual processes leading to higher operational risks:

The manual and decentralized nature of the existing processes made the control framework disparate, made the process time-consuming and error-prone, exacerbating operational risks.

Legacy systems & changing data landscape:

Global banks have 100’s of systems, multiple legacy applications from acquired businesses and lot of data prepared by end users in Excels. Also, there is a constant transformation of these systems that are on-going making downstream reporting more complex.

Data Quality issues:

Customer and Account information present across multiple product processors, making the attributes inconsistent. Implementing these DQ fixes in multiple source systems are often complex, making these inconsistencies creep into end reporting.

Lack of Oversight:

Lack of real-time monitoring and oversight tools limited the bank's ability to effectively track the status of reports and identify potential issues before they became significant problems. This reactive approach to reporting oversight left the bank vulnerable to compliance issues.

Adapting to frequent regulatory change:

With regulators frequently updating methodologies & reporting requirements, it is a struggle to keep pace with the changes. The manual nature of the reporting processes made it challenging to quickly adapt to new regulations, increasing the risk of non-compliance.

Increasing compliance costs:

Global firms face astronomical compliance costs due to de-centralized teams, different IT setups, multiple data extractions and not having a single scalable platform to support all compliance requirements.

Let’s dive into the Smarbl solution

Cloud First approach:

SmartReg solution leverages a cloud-first strategy, allowing the bank to scale its regulatory reporting capabilities effortlessly across jurisdictions while benefiting from the flexibility and cost-efficiency that cloud computing offers. On-premises version is also available for regions where cloud is not prevalent.

Common Data Model:

SmartReg employs a Common Data Model (CDM) tailored specifically for the regulatory landscape of the GCC region, standardizing data across multiple sources, ensuring a single version of truth is established. End to end data lineage is available for all reports tracing the attributes back to the CDM layer.

Integrated Data Quality Module:

SmartReg includes a robust Data Quality Module that proactively addresses data inconsistencies using advanced data profiling, validation, and cleansing capabilities, ensuring that the bank's data meets the highest standards of accuracy and reliability. Fallbacks and Adjustments can be configured basis the outcome of the data quality issues.

End to End Automation:

SmartReg offers comprehensive end-to-end automation of the regulatory reporting process. From data ingestion to report generation, approval process and submission, the entire workflow is automated, providing complete transparency and auditability to the process.

Monitoring Dashboards:

SmartReg provides intuitive, real-time monitoring dashboards with a comprehensive view of the regulatory reporting activities like, continuous tracking of report statuses, data quality metrics, approval status, adjustments etc. enabling proactive management oversight.

Pre-configured report level Controls:

SmartReg comes with a suite of pre-configured controls at the report level, designed to ensure compliance with specific regulatory requirements. These controls include validations, reconciliations, and variance analyses that automatically flag any discrepancies or anomalies in the data. This feature significantly reduces the risk of non-compliance by ensuring that reports meet the required standards before submission.

Audit Management:

SmartReg includes a comprehensive multi-level workflow module that tracks and records all user activities, changes, and approvals within the regulatory reporting process. This ensures full transparency and traceability, making it easier for the bank to demonstrate compliance during regulatory audits.

Business Self-Service:

One of the standout features of SmartReg is its Business Self-Service capability, which empowers business users to create, modify, and manage reports without relying on IT support. This self-service functionality is facilitated through an easy-to-use interface, allowing users to quickly respond to changing regulatory requirements, reducing the bank's dependency on technical resources, leading to faster turnaround times and lower operational costs.

The Outcome A Transformed compliance process

Improved Reporting Accuracy:

Achieved near-zero error rates in regulatory submissions through automated data validation and standardization.

Cost Reduction:

Reduced compliance costs by eliminating manual processes and leveraging cloud infrastructure. This will further accentuate when scaled out to other regional jurisdictions.

Increased Efficiency:

Streamlined end-to-end reporting processes, saving multiple man days in each reporting cycle.

Enhanced Transparency:

Improved visibility and traceability across the reporting lifecycle with comprehensive audit trails and monitoring dashboards.

Agility:

Enhanced the bank's ability to quickly adapt to new regulatory requirements with minimal disruption.

Automating Regulatory Reporting Across Multiple Jurisdictions for a Global Bank