Let’s face it – adhering to regulatory and internal certification requirements becomes an increasingly daunting challenge as the number of policies, employees, consultants, vendors, clients and business lines grow. That challenge is further complicated by the ever-changing regulatory risk management landscape and the resulting need to constantly update policies and procedures. As a UK-based financial firm, pressure from regulators like the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) only adds to the stress of these demands.
Many FCA regulators require certain employees at a firm sign a certification document as proof of compliance with specific regulations. However, even for small financial firms in the UK managing the quarterly and annual attestations of five or fewer employees, the resulting process can create hundreds of documents to issue, track and archive every year – neither a quick nor easy task.
Automating your financial firm’s annual attestation process, with solutions like the ComplySci® Platform, provide huge benefits for your firm, including saving time and more efficiently and effectively reporting findings.
How automation can simplify your financial firm’s annual attestations:
1.Save time
Automating your firm’s annual attestations can have a real return on investment. As a matter of fact, according to research, firms who have automated their processes spend:
- 30-50% less time monitoring attestations and certifications.
- 60% less time data gathering and reporting.
- 95% less time on-boarding and off-boarding employees.
2. Report findings
Solutions like the ComplySci Platform automate certification production and repose all documentation of employee attestations and certificates. They also allow your firm to easily run reports to evidence compliance with all attestation and regulatory requirements.
3. System generated reminder and overdue emails
When configured properly, compliance platforms should automatically alert the target audience to the start of a certification or attestation period via both email and the user dashboard and should send automatic reminders to users who still need to take action. This feature saves your compliance team from manually tracking down each employee, allowing the team to focus on tasks which add strategic value to the firm.
4. Configurability
Change is constant at many firms, so it’s important your firm has a system which can adjust with it. Some solutions are flexible and can be configured to your firm’s specific needs. This allows for greater process efficiencies. For example, ComplySci’s Platform solution allows firms to build multiple levels of assignments and approvals to ensure:
- Attestation documents and certifications are sent to the right people at your firm.
- The right people are assigned to approve those documents.
Additionally, firms can program start dates and deadlines while easily tracking the status of certifications in process. The system should also include functionality which can alert supervisors or the compliance department when users fail to complete mandatory certifications within the required time period.
5. Easy dashboard views of certification events
Simply put, automation allows for increased transparency. With an automated solution, your firm can leverage real-time dashboards to monitor the completion of questionnaires or attestations and analyse question responses by employee classification.
No matter the organisation’s size or the scope of applicable regulatory mandates, the advantages of standardizing workflows with robust technology are becoming increasingly clear. While cost efficiency and risk reduction are immediate and obvious benefits, firms who effectively leverage market-leading best practices stand to position themselves for ongoing success in 2023 and beyond.
Ready to see how ComplySci can help your firm with FCA annual attestations? Schedule a demo today!