Although this is a time of economic uncertainty, what is certain, is that your clients’ risk status is changing at unparalleled speed.
The number of firms going bust surged 50 per cent in March, official figures reveal. Data from the UK’s official public record for insolvencies shows the appointment of receivers, liquidators or administrators surged to 3,736 between March 10 and April 9 (source).
Last year there were 2,495 insolvency appointments in the same period while the average number over the past year was 1,995.
Due to the pandemic, there will be changes in your clients’ company structure, beneficial ownership, directorships and more importantly, their financial stability, which means ongoing client monitoring is essential for compliance and reducing your business risk.
Proactive monitoring is essential
Such rapid changes in the market need proactive monitoring solutions……you need to know about any changes as soon as they happen so that you can take immediate and appropriate action. It is no longer sufficient to re-check businesses every 6 months or a year, or even three years and hope that nothing significant has changed in the interim.
During this pandemic, regulated businesses must still adhere to Money Laundering regulations. Whilst working from home may be new to us, it is standard modus operandi for criminals – and they are seeing increased opportunities where regular surveillance may currently be stretched. It is essential that firms use all the tools at their disposal to continue to perform appropriate due diligence on their clients during onboarding, and to monitor their clients on an ongoing basis.
To help ensure you remain compliant during this period of change, we recommend that you invest in automated client monitoring solutions that will alert you instantly to changes in your clients’ risk status.
Have confidence with a solution from NorthRow
We offer comprehensive company and individual monitoring solutions that can proactively provide real-time alerts on a wide range of indicators, such as:
- New legal events, ie. the appointment of administrators
- Change in credit rating
- New beneficial ownership
- Appointment of new directors
- New adverse media
Our monitoring solutions are configured to specific requirements, so you will only be alerted to changes relevant to your business. Not only will the solution be fully customisable but it also delivers reduced costs with automation; clear audit record and ongoing compliance.
Delivering efficiency and regulatory compliance
As we experience these challenging times, we all need to work together to protect our businesses and to hold the frontline against criminals wanting to profit from the disruption.
You can’t afford to leave anything to chance. Accelerating the digital automation for your client monitoring will not only improve your compliance with relevant regulations, but it will also deliver outstanding efficiencies in your processes.
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. If you would like to learn more about how we can help you with ongoing client monitoring, do not hesitate to get in touch.
