Challenges on the path to achieving impact

Cormac Sheedy, Head of MENA Region, Fenergo sheds light on the importance of automation in driving efficiencies and how Fenergo is supporting over 80 financial institutions globally to meet their specific technology and regulatory requirements

Cormac Sheedy, Head of MENA Region, Fenergo

Given the increasing adoption of technology in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic outbreak, where is technology playing a significant role in compliancerisk management currently?

The onset of the pandemic has forced financial institutions to accelerate digital transformation. Many banks haven’t managed to strike the right balance of compliance against the need to be profitable. In times of crisis like today, financial institutions must be able to prioritize customers’ needs.

To deliver a more customer-centric experience on a sustainable basis though, they need to be technologically set up for compliance success. We see a lot of banks implementing a digital know your customer (KYC) backbone, a compliance infrastructure across their entire group, for all business lines, irrespective of the different channels.

Digital KYC empowers the efficient management of all KYC policies and regulatory compliance and can be digitally enabled to become the biggest opportunities for financial institutions to transform their customer experiences, and future-proof themselves. Especially now, financial institutions need to build digital onboarding workflows and client lifecycle journeys, with the customer in mind to ensure KYC information is current and accurate.”

As an organization, what are some of the most advanced i n n ova t i ve a p p ro a c h e s to compliance risk management you have implemented?

Fenergo supports over 80 financial institutions around the world with technology solutions that meet their specific technology and regulatory requirements. In the GCC region, Fenergo is supporting Bahrain’s Electronic Network for Financial Transactions (BENEFIT) with a blockchain-integrated KYC utility.

Financial institutions that subscribe to BENEFIT can instantly complete KYC and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance procedures when onboarding new individual and corporate customers through the Fenergo-powered KYC hub and rules engine utilizing blockchain.

The centralization of customer data removes the need for duplicate requests for information, enabling financial institutions to onboard new customers and products swiftly and seamlessly. The elimination of manual processes reduces costs and improves operational

efficiencies, ultimately optimizing customer experiences.

What trends do you see among financial institutions in the MENA region and how do you compare them to other parts of the world?

There is a growing focus on regulation and compliance in the region and this has created an unprecedented demand for fintech and regulation technology. The cost of this regulation for these banks is also an issue, with many spending millions of dollars to remain compliant. They go through the internal debate to build or buy, but more of them realize that “futureproofing” their institution cannot be easily achieved internally.

Banks came to terms with the dramatic changes that occurred in the early stages of lockdown, as branches closed and staff worked from home, many of them quickly identified the need to offer their clients a proper remote digital experience.

W h a t d o yo u s e e a s t h e greatest challenges for the financial services industry in enforcing compliance?

Significant physical infrastructure and

manual processes for compliance are not resilient and are prone to error. This absence of automation inhibits a financial institution’s ability to effectively meet regulatory obligations and makes them liable to fines that are costly in both financial and reputational terms.

The key is in driving efficiencies through automation. By leveraging bestof-breed technology, financial institutions can provide a strong framework for governance, risk and control. By replacing manual compliance and onboarding processes with automation, employees can focus on value-added services and significantly reduce errors which have huge reputational, regulatory and cost implications.

How do you envision financial regulation and compliance in the future?

I n to d a y ’s c h a l l e n g i n g b u s i n es s environment with increasing uncertainty and widespread lockdowns, FIs must show resilience in order to support their customers. More and more banks are embracing the cloud for client onboarding and KYC/AML compliance to achieve agility, drive scalability, lower costs and increase resilience. THERE IS A GROWING FOCUS ON REGULATION AND COMPLIANCE IN THE REGION AND THIS HAS CREATED AN UNPRECEDENTED DEMAND FOR FINTECH AND REGULATION TECHNOLOGY. Cormac Sheedy, Head of Mena Region, Fenergo