Preparing for the Future of Finance: Automation in the Financial Services Industry
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The financial services industry, including institutions like yours, faces great potential for growth: in 2020, total global wealth surpassed $400 trillion USD, and recent research anticipates that high net-worth households will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7% to 52 million by 2026. However, it’s no secret that growth will be hard-earned: the landscape is perilous with numerous regulatory requirements, near-constant economic upset, and high employee turnover.
The implementation of automation gives forward-facing financial institutions a leg up on the competition, allowing for more control, visibility, and accuracy. Trintech’s reconciliation and financial close automation solutions work seamlessly together to empower your financial institution’s accounting and finance teams as they navigate the tumultuous waters that accompany growth.
John A. Shedd, an American author and professor, famously stated, “A ship in the harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.” While stagnation might feel reassuring, genuine success stems from embracing growth, a journey that demands venturing beyond the familiar. Taking strides to enhance your existing financial close processes and welcoming change entail strategic risks, ultimately paving the way for your organization’s success.
Remove Regulatory Regrets
With the myriad of regulations that the financial services industry enforces, including the Security Exchange Commission’s Regulation Best Interest standard and Department of Labor’s Fiduciary Rule, audits are a necessary evil. Even if regulatory bodies have yet to come knocking, internal teams need to keep abreast of current standings in every regard. Keeping all of your data organized and easily digestible for both internal and external audit teams can be a monumental challenge, particularly when there are thousands of accounts with countless transactions in each.
While automated reconciliations and transaction matching can reduce errors and write-offs, digitizing your organization’s many records has the added benefit of audit trails and drill-down capabilities, down to the most minute details (including who did what and when). The added advantage of comprehensive reporting functionalities provides the ability to put all of the necessary data into an easily accessible report that you can trust to be accurate and complete.
“I was very tired of using Excel as a professional tool for established processes.
We no longer have to use binders to archive our financial data because the solution archives
everything electronically. It has simplified our working routines due to the
different permission levels that the solution offers.”Finance Manager, Toyota Financial Services
Economic Efficiency
We’ve all heard the saying: time is money. This is never more accurate than when running a business, where your team is compensated for their time (or their overtime). Increasing efficiency is a tried and true strategy: a study by the Harvard Business Review of the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 found that the most successful companies “cut costs mainly by improving operational efficiency.”
Automated reconciliations and transaction matching from Trintech can erase the mundane and repetitive tasks that your team deals with on a daily basis. Without these monotonous tasks consuming hours of the day, finance and accounting teams can complete more tasks that add value, like investigating exceptions and identifying trends that may lead to strategic opportunities.
“We used to spend a significant amount of time and effort on low-value, tedious tasks.
Now with Trintech, those tasks have been automated so our teams can focus their time
and effort on high-value tasks. We also now have visibility to easily
investigate any issues in the processes, like exceptions.”Senior Specialist, Danica Pension
Top Technology, Top Talent
Attracting and keeping the best team members in the financial services industry is vital to the success of your institution. An article from Forbes cites that employee turnover can cost your financial services institution 33% of an employee’s annual salary, between costs for recruiters and advertising, interviewing and administering pre-employment tests, and training.
Clear workflows and easy-to-navigate task management functionalities help both team members and leaders understand what tasks have been completed—as well as what’s left to be done. This visibility eases frustration and confusion, leading to a smoother workday. The previously-mentioned efficiency gains help too, as team members are more easily able to complete their work on time (leaving time to join that softball league or attend that happy hour).
“Trintech provides the team with exactly what they need in a standardized format,
so they aren’t wasting time chasing items down during the period end close.
Prior to Trintech, it was just ‘do and no time for review.’ Because the process
has sped up considerably, our team now has time to analyze the
data and provide key, strategic information back to the business.”Group Financial Controller, Bitstamp
Are you ready to start taking a forward-facing approach to financial services industry regulations, economic upset, and employee turnover? Visit our webpage to learn more about how Trintech’s automated reconciliation and transaction matching software can help!
Written by: Nicole Tallman
