Less than a third of firms have client monitoring fully integrated into their CRM
Effective client monitoring is a key priority in the compliance processes of all organisations, particularly those in regulated business within the banking, financial services and property sectors. Over the past year the pandemic has led many firms to expedite their digital transformation, bringing forward the need for online transaction-based activity rather than in-person face-to-face.
More than 80% of organisations are actively monitoring their client portfolio.
According to the survey of 400 attendees, including compliance professionals from banks and financial services firms, to a recent webinar* hosted by compliance solution provider NorthRow. This active ‘Know Your Customer’ monitoring helps firms to comply with regulations and avoid becoming involved in corruption, terrorist financing, and money laundering.
When asked how well client monitoring is integrated into their organisation’s risk processes, only 29% said that monitoring is fully integrated into their CRM, while 31% said it is part of their risk dashboard.
40% said that they use a standalone or point solution for client monitoring, or that it is not integrated into overall risk processes at all.
More than a third of respondents (35%) said that organised crime is the biggest compliance threat on their radar, while 26% cited regulatory divergence as their number one concern.
What our CEO had to say…
Adam Holden, NorthRow CEO, said:
“Over the customer lifecycle, there will be continuous changes in your customers’ risk profile, for example, company structures, beneficial ownerships, directorships and more importantly, their financial stability. The pandemic has added to the frequency of these changes at unparalleled speed, including an increase in insolvencies and money laundering activities.
“While it is encouraging that the majority of organisations are actively monitoring their clients, the findings that less than a third of firms have monitoring fully integrated into their CRM is a surprise. The right digital solution, tailored to the individual requirements of a business, enables ongoing monitoring and reduces the risks presented by cumbersome manual systems.”
The benefits of client monitoring are not limited to fighting organised crime and meeting regulatory requirements. Almost half of survey respondents (45%) said monitoring is important for client retention, while a quarter (24%) said that it aids cross-selling.
In Summary
As we experience these challenging times, we all need to work together to protect our businesses and to hold the frontline organised criminals wanting to profit from the disruption.
By ensuring you have robust monitoring solutions that is fully integrated into your risk and compliance processes you can not only help protect your business from financial crime and bad actors, but you can also use monitoring as an opportunity to improve the customer experience, increase client retention and ultimately deliver better relationships with your customers.
The time for maintaining the status quo or taking incremental steps in the face of industry disruption has passed and should be replaced by a dynamic approach to ongoing client monitoring.
By implementing the changes now, you can be confident not just for these challenging times but also in the future and will allow you to focus on growing your business rather than spending valuable resources on manual compliance processes
To learn more about NorthRow’s market-leading customisable monitoring solution that automatically alerts you to any counterparty risk profile changes do not hesitate to get in touch or book a meeting.
