Process improvement drives GRC success

When ING SW Europe started a Compliance Maturity Program it turned to Nimbus for guidance on business process optimisation. Having evaluated compliance operation changes imposed by MiFID regulations, it became apparent that an eightfold increase in capacity was needed.

“Nimbus Control provided a process view which greatly facilitated the definition of requirements between compliance specialists and developers. Our cost per transaction reduced from €16 to less than €3, and we have exceeded our target for automatic processing.”
-Erik Werson, Program Director - SWE Compliance Maturity Programme, ING

ING and Nimbus ran a process definition workshop with several compliance officers. As a result ING obtained a complete end-to-end view of the processes in question and were able to identify many opportunities for process optimisation and elimination of manual procedures. The next step was to build the required automation. Capacity issues within IT forced ING to outsource development and hosting. Nimbus' hosted software-as-a-service capability was selected so that no software needed to be installed on ING's infrastructure. A technical specification was built from the process content, which after a couple of reviews with ING was handed to the development team who started work straight away. Within three months the capacity increase was achieved.

The application has been rolled-out across the whole SWE region in 2009 and in 2010 is rolling-out internationally. Further compliance automation projects have been similarly developed and delivered by Nimbus for ING, including financial instrument trade approvals, insider registration, gift and entertainment registration and outside positions registration. Further modules are being added including Contract Insider, Services Insider and Document Registration. As a consequence of the success enjoyed by ING, Nimbus has packaged the applications as the "Nimbus Compliance Suite" to make them available to other clients.

International investment bank - operational risk controls management

Nimbus has been working with this international investment bank on a risk and controls project for 18 months. Following a FSA audit the bank decided to establish a global, consistent GRC framework, which transcended traditionally siloed, product-aligned departments. The historic approach to managing risk and controls through spreadsheets had not provided the required oversight.

The bank adopted Nimbus Control to create a transparent business process model, together with a consistent risks and controls framework. This is being deployed to all required employees via a Microsoft SharePoint portal, which integrates processes, risk, controls and KPI's. Interaction is driven through Nimbus Control's "Action Management" module which helps push personalised workflow tasks to users, such as attestations, risk control self certifications, reminders and escalations. In addition to software, Nimbus provided a global professional services team, working across three global hubs to help capture over 4000 processes in four months, and established a Center of Excellence to ensure the content is consistent and kept up-to-date.

The result: One source of the truth for business processes, risks, controls, KPI's and associated tasks. Transparency from global overview down to operating departments and individual control instances. Consistent data capture, reporting and behaviour by all risk and control officers, irrespective of department or region. Clear understanding of how risks, controls and compliance obligations interlink and how they impact the banks operations. Easier audit, with evidence of consistent data, consistent management control and stakeholder engagement.

Visit Nimbus Partners' website http://www.nimbuspartners.com/fst

Customer: ING - South West Europe

Challenge: Achieve MiFID compliance and an eightfold increase in trade request approvals, whilst reducing processing costs and improving control and reporting

Solution: Business process standardization across local compliance teams, substantial process automation eliminating manual steps and e-mail.  Used Nimbus Control for process improvement and Nimbus Compliance Suite for automation.

Benefits: Eight-fold increase in trade request compliance transactions, cost per transaction down from €16 to less than €3. Compliance officers now able to concentrate on value adding tasks. Obtained real-time compliance reporting.

Biography

Antony Bream is Global Head of Nimbus' Financial Services Practice and has spearheaded its growth since 2004. Bream's recent customer engagements include RBS, RBC, Northern Trust, HSBC, Man Group and ING.