How Financial Services Firms Can Address DORA Requirements

In the past two decades, nearly one-fifth of reported cyber incidents have affected the global financial sector, causing $12 billion in direct losses to financial firms. The European Union has taken decisive action to bring these figures down, focusing efforts on greater data transparency and imposing stringent regulations for the financial services sector. With the Digital Operational Resilience Act, or DORA, businesses are now legally obligated to prioritise transparency. However, many organisations may not have the systems or processes in place to address this new regulation, or don’t know where to start.

Let’s dive into what this regulation means for the financial sector, how to overcome hurdles to provide higher levels of transparency and delve into the solution to support compliance – record management and digitisation.

What is DORA? And why should I care?

In short, DORA is an EU regulation that requires businesses to effectively manage ICT third-party risks and provide regulators with a log of cyber incidents.

The regulation is specific to the financial services sector and aims to strengthen the IT security of entities such as banks, insurance companies, and investment firms to ensure that the financial sector in Europe can stay resilient in the event of a severe operational disruption. Due to the amount of sensitive and confidential data financial organizations hold on their systems, the ramifications of a data breach are severe. This regulation serves as an extra layer of protection for customers and businesses alike.

What does DORA mean for financial businesses?

Under DORA regulation, businesses need to be able to:
  • Monitor third-party risk providers
  • Effectively share information and intelligence on cyber threats
  • Report major IT-related incidents to authorities
  • Ensure contractual provisions for third-party risk providers

With organisations built on a foundation of customer and corporate trust, failure to meet this new regulation could cause damage to reputation as well as the risk of fines. Disorganised data and siloed records put institutions at operational and regulatory risk when the next audit comes around, and the only way to meet DORA demands is to provide full transparency.

What roadblocks to compliance do financial organisations need to look out for in their current setup? Record-handling presents a significant reporting and compliance challenge for businesses under DORA. Meeting these new standards means overcoming the following hurdles:

Reliance on legacy processes and systems: Many businesses are still using single-point solutions dedicated to specific tasks, meaning that data is often siloed, dispersed across a myriad of different systems. True digitisation means not only digitising information, but making storage and processes simpler, centralised, and transparent – and this is the only way to help support regulation.

Long and complicated data retrieval: Retrieving up-to-date and consistent information across systems is a challenge, resulting in wasted time and data inaccuracies.

Balancing data security and accessibility: Every customer account includes a substantial amount of sensitive data and information. Many institutions struggle to optimise compliance costs and address regulations while maintaining a level of data accessibility and security.

Manual processes for staff: Although digitised data has, for the most part, replaced paper documentation, old disorganisation habits have transferred to the digital realm. Often, employees must manually manage large volumes of data – a complex and tedious task that can bog down staff and take away time that could be dedicated to more value-add activities.

How can financial businesses overcome these obstacles and achieve true transparency?

The answer is a fully-connected, digitalised, and centralised document management system.

Organisations need to ensure that all relevant information across business-critical systems can be accessed from a secure location. Easy search and retrieval of updated and accurate content is key. By integrating this single source of truth with, CRM, ERP, and tax planning and compliance systems, financial data can be synchronised for enhanced accuracy and consistency. Resulting reports and documentation are critical to DORA compliance. Organisations can also manage sensitive data and eliminate gaps and siloes in legacy infrastructure, improving security efforts and reducing risk of future cyber-attacks.

Record management systems can also prove vital to simplifying compliance processes with features such as:
  • Audit trails
  • Version control
  • Tagging
  • Document history
  • System activity

Additionally, teams can easily set up a view-only repository for tax authorities and DORA regulators to process audits or compliance checks. Without these technologies, back-office employees must deal with the manual collection, retention and disposal of customer data to address the regulation. 

With greater data transparency and effective digitization of back-office processes, institutions can address emerging compliance requirements as and when they occur. This level of flexibility is the only way that organizations will be able to achieve total transparency in the long term, and observe DORA’s regulatory requirements.

Address DORA requirements with Laserfiche’s robust records management tools.

Streamline Wealth Management Client Onboarding with a Digital Ecosystem

According to the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Financial Advisor Satisfaction Study, nearly 1 in 3 (28%) advisors say they don’t spend enough time building client relationships. Compared to their peers, these advisors report spending an average of 41% more time on administrative and compliance-oriented tasks, and, in many cases, they are starting to question whether their firm is committed to providing them with the support and resources they need to succeed.

In response to challenges like these, the wealth management industry is experiencing a digital revolution, transforming the once-cumbersome client onboarding process. Gone are the days of manual data entry and fragmented workflows. Today, intelligent process automation and integrations, key components of a robust digital ecosystem, are leading the charge.

At the heart of this transformation lies cutting-edge enterprise content management (ECM) solutions. These empower firms like yours to:
  • Automate Client Onboarding: Seamlessly integrate your operational hub with your preferred custodian and CRM system through APIs and process automation. This not only allows for faster account opening without overburdening staff, but also expedites the entire client onboarding process, leading to quicker revenue generation.

  • Simplify Compliance: Establish a secure, centralized system with time-stamped audit trails and robust document and records management. This “single source of truth” simplifies compliance with complex regulations – like SEC Rule 17a-4 and GDPR – by centralizing and tracking all communications and documentation.

  • Enhance Operational Efficiency & Improve Operational Excellence Strategy: Streamlining back-office operations through document workflow automation is crucial for your operational excellence strategy. This eliminates information silos, fosters collaboration, reduces operating costs, and frees up staff for higher-value tasks, boosting overall efficiency.

  • Elevate the Client Experience: An automated client onboarding process frees advisors from tedious paperwork, allowing them to focus on client engagement. Data-driven insights, leveraged from a well-integrated CRM system, help advisors tailor services to each client’s specific needs, further enhancing the overall client experience.

Ready to unlock your wealth management firm’s full potential? Embrace the future of client onboarding in wealth management and elevate your operational excellence strategy. Download Laserfiche’s comprehensive ebook to discover how ECM solutions can transform data collaboration, revolutionize operations, simplify compliance with regulations like the SEC’s books and records rules, and propel your client experience to new heights.

Download free whitepaper: How to Revolutionize Client Onboarding in Wealth Management.

Rehmann

Explore the full case study to discover how Rehmann improves workflows and information governance using Laserfiche.

Stonehage Fleming

Stonehage Fleming Integrations Drive Operational Excellence

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GMX Seguros improves client services with Laserfiche.

Whitepaper: How to Revolutionize Client Onboarding in Wealth Management

Client Onboarding Made Easy: CRM + Automation in Wealth Management

Client satisfaction and regulatory compliance are paramount in the wealth management industry. Yet, at times, your ability to streamline the client onboarding process and improve back-office operations leaves new clients wondering if they came to the right place. You’re not alone.

Many wealth management firms face the same challenges – onboarding clients seamlessly, while ensuring all necessary documentation and compliance requirements are met. Traditional customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, while widely used, often fall short when it comes to robust workflow automation capabilities.

Discover the benefits of CRM integration with intelligent process automation to enhance client experience and simplify compliance. If you’re searching for more comprehensive solutions to improve your operational excellence strategy, read on…

The Limitations of Stand-Alone CRMs in Workflow Automation

Despite the high market penetration of CRM software in the industry, wealth management firms struggle to leverage these platforms as the central operational hub for onboarding new clients and other critical processes.

Stand-alone CRMs typically lack the advanced process automation functionalities required to customize electronic forms for different jurisdictions, account types, and approval stages. Plus, many CRMs don’t fully comply with recordkeeping regulations (e.g., SEC Rule 17a-4), offer comprehensive reporting and analytics features, or provide the flexibility needed to reconfigure or rebuild complex business workflows. These limitations can leave you grappling with information silos, manual data entry errors, data security concerns, and inefficiencies across different areas of your business.

Why Document Workflow Automation in Wealth Management is Vital to Growing Your Business

Forward-thinking firms are turning to CRM integrations with intelligent process automation platforms to revolutionize their operations. By implementing content-centric workflow automation, firms can streamline the client onboarding process, simplify compliance procedures, and break down information silos that create bottlenecks in your productivity. These enterprise content management (ECM) solutions offer robust workflow customization options, advanced ability to leverage data reporting and analytics capabilities, and secure data storage, empowering firms to modernize their digital ecosystem and enhance client experience.

Stonehage Fleming’s Transition to Laserfiche

Stonehage Fleming strategically migrated a substantial portion of their workflows, including the client onboarding process, from Microsoft Dynamics CRM to Laserfiche’s enterprise content management solution. This transition not only resulted in significant cost savings of $55,000 annually, but also unlocked over 35,000 hours of time savings per year.

By leveraging Laserfiche’s advanced workflow automation and integration tools, Stonehage Fleming was able to standardize a group function across multiple jurisdictions and departments, mitigating compliance risks and enhancing operational efficiency.

The Impact of Intelligent Process Automation on Client Services

Gert Bester, IT Business Systems Manager at Stonehage Fleming, highlights the transformative impact of automation on client services: “Instead of getting more resources to do the work and expanding, [our middle office] looked at the processes to automate a lot of steps to be more supportive of the front office team. And in return, the front office team can actually support the clients better.”

Learn about CRM integration with intelligent process automation platform and more wealth management best practices to improve operational efficiency, streamline your client onboarding process, and simplify compliance.

Download free Whitepaper: How to Revolutionize Client Onboarding in Wealth Management.

6 Ways the Right Records Management Solution Can Streamline Financial Services Operations

By Joman Kwong, Strategic Solutions Manager at Laserfiche

With various regulations in place that stipulate how and when financial institutions collect, keep and dispose of customer data, back-office employees are often left to manually manage large volumes of records. Complex and tedious tasks of this nature can bog down staff and take away time that should be dedicated to more valuable activities. Fortunately, leading records management solutions can address regulatory requirements while also supporting streamlined experiences for both staff and customers.

Pinning Down the Pain Points

Every customer account includes large amounts of sensitive data and information. Many financial institutions struggle to manage costs and regulations while maintaining that level of data accessibility and security. But when it comes to record handling, any breakdown within these categories could be costly in both the monetary and reputational sense.

Data shows that financial institutions experience the second-highest average cost per data breach. The average $5.97 million loss would be detrimental to any business, and for organizations in the financial sector — which are built on the foundation of customer trust — the added reputational damage would be even more devastating. Record disorganization and misuse can lead to fines as well as put institutions at operational and regulatory risk when the next audit comes around.

Additionally, not only will dispersed information frustrate employees who are tasked with locating records, it will also have an adverse effect on the customer experience, where confidence and trust are paramount. With advanced and easy-to-use records management solutions available, there’s no reason to risk penalties or overburden your employees with scattered records and stacks of paper.

Leveraging the Power of Records Management

An excellent records management solution is a key part of this modernization journey. Content services technology is highly beneficial, streamlining operations across business units and simplifying larger strategies.

Here are six key advantages of converting paper or digitized records to an improved centralized information and records management platform:
  • Reduce operational costs. There’s only so much space to store physical records — when information is instead kept and protected in digital vaults made specifically to house sensitive information, organizations can eliminate space as well as storage costs.
  • Improve data accessibility. Having enhanced visibility into recordkeeping significantly reduces the time spent searching for and requesting access to information across core business applications. Records management solutions allow organizations to sort folders and files in the hierarchies and groups that work best for their needs, thus optimizing productivity. Integrations can further improve visibility and streamline information sharing across the organization.
  • Support business continuity. To reduce friction for employees, records must be easily accessible at any time and from any location, especially given today’s distributed workforce. However, convenience must not come at the expense of security. Records management solutions offer security tools in a scalable, resilient database.
  • Address compliance requirements. Industry compliance rules can often shift unpredictably — records management solutions empower pivotal adjustments to address emerging regulations.
  • Support audits. Audits are huge undertakings. Records management systems offer robust features like audit trails, tagging, document history, and system activity, which help simplify the process.
  • Improve customer experience and drive faster revenue generation. Today, customers expect seamless, digital, and quick services. The faster customer service representatives can access the information they need, the quicker customers can do business with the institution, ultimately accelerating revenue generation.

Cleaning Up the Digital Realm

Investing in centralized content services technologies should improve experiences for both employees and customers while boosting the bottom line. A single source of truth eliminates pesky guesswork and makes it easier for back-office employees, legal personnel, and customer service representatives to leverage information across business systems.

Digitized records have, for the most part, replaced paper documentation. However, the old disorganization habits have transferred to the digital realm. Luckily, records management technology is a breeze to set up, use and maintain, empowering financial institutions to focus on what matters most: customers. For more information about records management and to see it in action, check out the webinar “Streamlining Records Management for Banks and Credit Unions with Laserfiche” and more curated resources on our financial solutions page.

Streamlining Lending Processes: The Power of Automation in Driving Revenue and Productivity

In today’s financial landscape, lending processing stands as a cornerstone for institutions, providing not only substantial revenue streams but also diversifying product offerings to meet a myriad of customer needs. Total U.S. household debt reached $17.05 trillion in 2023, with mortgage balances standing at $12.25 trillion, making it one of the largest asset classes in the United States. However, the traditional paper-based approach to lending poses significant challenges, leading to inefficiencies, errors, and compliance risks. As financial institutions navigate this terrain, leveraging lending automation emerges as a game-changer, offering streamlined processes, improved productivity, and enhanced revenue generation opportunities.

Insights from a survey by Laserfiche and Credit Union Times revealed the urgency of embracing automation. Over half (52%) of banking respondents prioritize driving new sources of revenue through digital transformation in document and information management today, while 48% focus on creating a digital-first member experience. However, challenges persist, with 62% of respondents facing manual tasks, reviews, and approvals, and 60% grappling with manual and inconsistent data processing. Furthermore, 56% have yet to commence automating tedious tasks and busywork, indicating the pressing need for automation in document and information management.

Consolidating data for efficiency and security

A pivotal aspect of lending automation is the establishment of a single source of truth, a centralized repository that captures data from various business systems through intelligent data capture tools. By automating data validation and navigation, institutions can minimize manual errors and ensure data consistency, mitigating risks and optimize fraud detection associated with scattered documents. This consolidation enhances operational efficiency while bolstering data security, which is crucial in an era of heightened cybersecurity threats. For instance, Bath Building Society exemplifies this approach by adopting comprehensive data management solutions, enabling seamless integration across disparate systems. Such consolidation empowers employees to access accurate data swiftly, facilitating smoother lending operations and bolstering compliance efforts.

Enhancing customer experience through faster lending processes

Leveraging content-centric process automation tools marks another pivotal step in lending automation. When financial institutions use electronic forms to both run the lending application process and capture customer information, all of that data can be automatically and securely transferred to core banking and loan original systems. This reduces the amount of time it takes to initiate lending procedures. Automated review and approval processes within content services platforms further expedite operations, fostering team collaboration and reducing processing bottlenecks. For example, integrating electronic signature platforms streamlines loan package generation, expedites approval processes and enhances customer experience. This approach minimizes manual interventions, reduces turnaround times, and fosters greater customer engagement, nurturing long-term relationships and loyalty.

Unlocking revenue potential and ensuring compliance

The benefits of lending automation extend beyond operational excellence to revenue generation and regulatory compliance. Improved data accessibility, facilitated by seamless system connectivity, expands institutions’ capacity to process more applications swiftly. By cutting operational costs and enhancing productivity, institutions can allocate resources more strategically, further fueling revenue growth.

Lending automation emerges as a transformative force in the financial landscape, offering institutions the means to drive revenue, improve productivity, and enhance customer experiences. By embracing automation technologies, institutions can confidently navigate the complexities of lending processing to capitalize on emerging opportunities and deliver unparalleled value to customers in an increasingly digital world.

Explore additional resources from the Laserfiche banking solutions page: https://www.laserfiche.com/solutions/financial-services/banks-and-credit-unions/

Laserfiche claims victory at WealthBriefing European Awards 2024

The company’s award falls under the ‘Change Management Process/Best Implementation of a Technology Solution’ category, which recognises Laserfiche’s contribution to the digital overhaul of operations within wealth management firms.