The challenges facing risk and compliance officers within the banking sector can be vexing, and run the gamut from identifying and thwarting potential financial crimes to responding to shifting regulatory demands. In order to respond to frequent questions that arise—e.g., Who am I doing business with? What are the risks involved?—officers are required to access data from trusted sources.

Yet historically, risk and compliance officers have not had a holistic view of data that reveals interconnected risk factors for customers, vendors, and suppliers. Instead, they have found themselves struggling with manual processes, outdated data, and competing demands that strain resources. This lack of perspective can hamper the team’s ability to respond to risks efficiently and effectively. Drawing from numerous unconnected data sources leaves gaps—and when gaps proliferate and widen, risks slip through, hinder reporting, and consume time. Professionals are unable to leverage a deeper understanding of risks without unifying disparate datasets into a single, trustworthy view.

There is new technology, however, that ingests internal customer data and connects it with best-in-class external data to address the problem of disconnected datasets, turning them into reliable resources. Connecting data provides a 360-degree perspective on customers; graph analytics connect entities to build networks of relationships that highlight potential risks and opportunities. It offers a comprehensive view that facilitates quick and informed decision-making.

Due diligence at onboarding

Client onboarding and monitoring within the banking section is essential to help gain a competitive advantage and meet compliance requirements around the areas of global anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) regulations, for example.

While staying abreast of regulatory changes and proactively preparing for them ensures that teams are aware of the potential impacts, more due diligence is needed—namely, balancing compliance effectiveness with a greater customer experience. Taking time to review compliance risk assessments and mapping out processes helps to identify potential compliance risks and improves customer journeys.

Teams can streamline onboarding processes by using data and analytics to track efficiency, metrics, and trends. This proactive approach helps identify and address issues in real time, reducing risks, and smoothing workflows. This involves dismantling silos around databases and removing unnecessary duplicate tasks throughout the company and the customer journey.

By sharing information, adopting best practices, and planning a compliance strategy together, organizations can ensure the right resources are in place to make the required impact. This results in a stronger connection between banks, their customers and their networks, which can support growth opportunities.

New risk assessment vision

A new approach is reshaping risk assessment and combines best-in-class technology and trusted data sources. Integrating decision intelligence enhances operational efficiency and the quality of business decisions. Decision intelligence uses unique company data, which is further enriched and then bolstered by robust external data resources. This comprehensive view enables organizations to fully understand their operational ecosystems. Furthermore, it equips them to evaluate risks and identify new opportunities when incorporated into their regular business operations.

By deploying decision intelligence alongside existing workflows, organizations can obtain trusted and clean risk data, unveiling hidden connections and strengthening their second line of defense. Automating workflows also provides an immediate business impact by identifying negative relationships and highlighting clients with less-than-ideal risk profiles within hours. By working in concert with Moody’s vast database of organizations, risk and compliance officers in the banking sector obtain a deeper understanding of their customer networks to assess risk.

Achieving integrated risk assessment

Quantexa’s Decision Intelligence Platform helps enterprises achieve an integrated risk assessment by visualizing the most trusted data and resolving vast internal data resources. When this information is obtained—supplemented with Moody’s data through Quantexa's Decision Intelligence Platform—organizations have a powerful integrated risk assessment capabilities. Organizations and their teams can see a 360-degree view of their customer ecosystem and the interconnectedness of their business networks—critical intelligence that, until now, has been unobtainable. This approach positions customers for greater future success and minimizes their overall exposure to risk.

Contact us at moodys.com or Quantexa.com for more information.