The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of new communication modalities, which has brought about new challenges and risks. Watch the panel discussion on how a holistic trade and communication surveillance approach can help.
Synpulse recently participated in the inaugural RegTech Asia Summit 2020 organised by Regulation Asia, where experts across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region gathered to discuss key regulatory issues impacting APAC and the technology solutions that offer support.
During this two-day summit, Parsa Khoshdel, Operational Risk Change Lead in Singapore, shared his insights during the panel discussion titled “Improving trade risks through surveillance and monitoring”.
Jerome Lambert, APAC Market Director, Financial Markets Compliance of technology provider NICE Actimize, and Manesh Samtani, Editor at Regulation Asia, also joined in the discussion.
The interactive panel discussed the novel business risks that have resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, the changing landscape of trade execution, and how a holistic trade and communication surveillance approach can bring tremendous benefits to financial institutions today.
Compiled below are the key takeaways and insights from the panel discussion.
Unprecedented times, unprecedented risks
The world has been hit with an unprecedented pandemic. The financial services sector and, in particular, banks are now faced with new business risks, such as record-high trading volumes and volatility.
Watch: Unprecendented times, unprecedented risks
The rise of alternate trade and communication channels
As working from home becomes the new normal, we see a tandem rise in alternate communication channels, such as the use of messenger apps, WhatsApp and WeChat. Given the risks posed by these new communication channels, have banks stepped up their efforts to enhance their trade and communication surveillance monitoring capabilities to bolster controls? And what challenges are banks facing while attempting to implement such an enhancement to their existing controls?
Watch: The rise of alternate trade and communication channels
Risks and challenges faced within private banks
With the regulations set in place, the wealth management and private banking sector are faced with many challenges and risk-mitigating efforts. The trend of moving towards more digital initiatives, such as digital pre-trade disclosures, can help private banks create efficiency gains and simplify the control execution process.
Watch: Risks and challenges faced within Private Banks
Towards a holistic trade and communication surveillance solution
How can the trade and communication risks be managed in an efficient and cost-effective manner? The panel highlighted a holistic trade and communication surveillance approach that leverages these key factors:
- Investing in a solution that leverages big data, with the ability to process both structured and unstructured data.
- Implement cutting-edge robotic process automation (RPA) capabilities for maximum efficiency gains, with the ability to streamline manual processes.
- Leverage technology, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, in holistic communication surveillance to sharpen the alerts generated and reduce false positives.
But are the proposed solutions a common scene within banks today? Or are banks still playing catch up?
Watch: Towards a holistic trade and communication surveillance solution
Final thoughts from the experts
Are banks doing enough today? Is there a best time to begin one’s transformation journey? The panel share their final thoughts before concluding these insightful discussions on trade and communication surveillance in today’s unprecedented times.
Watch: Final thoughts from the experts
Next steps for banks
As banks chart their course in managing these new risks via holistic trade and communication surveillance, this transformation will not happen overnight. Instead, it must be introduced in a systematic and controlled fashion, with each stage tested thoroughly and quality of data scrutinised.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
It is imperative that banks start their transformation journey today to reap the benefits of this unique proposition.
How Synpulse can help
Synpulse is dedicated to financial services and private banks, with many of our clients being major private banks in the Asia-Pacific region. Our expertise includes defining and implementing risk and controls frameworks, as well as the financial services process automation and system change management support crucial for a successful project.
Specifically, we can help by:
- Reviewing and redesigning your monitoring, risk, and controls frameworks
- Analysing and mapping your existing monitoring or compliance processes against the key regulatory requirements, while highlighting areas of improvement and regulatory risks
- Streamlining and automating your compliance-driven monitoring and investigation tasks for greater efficiency, higher sampling rate, and lower costs and risks
