Compliance management technology can deliver powerful metrics, automate processes, and generate predictive insights that help bank management make better decisions for the future of the bank. The profound effect compliance tech has on the management of compliance through streamlined workflows is, however, often overlooked. While streamlined workflows may not be as flashy as predictive insights, the effect they have on the way risk and compliance officers work in a bank is significantly positive.

Workflows, as the name suggest, is the sequence in which a process is carried out or a task is completed. SOX (Sarbanes Oxley) attestation is a great example. A bank needs to ensure that it is complying with SOX related reporting requirements. This entails getting the required information from the relevant departments, ensuring that the information is correct, and then making the information publicly available.

The Sarbanes–Oxley Act was designed to curb auditing and corporate scandals through better reporting guidelines and requirements. Compliance with SOX requirements is necessary for all organizations.

Compliance management systems provide the organization with a platform that enables streamlined workflows, which in turn makes the process flow smoother and faster. Share on X

How the Compliance Team Fulfills SOX Requirements

The problems that are inherent in SOX related processes in banks across the country become obvious once the workflow of the processes is observed. The problem isn’t fulfilling SOX reporting requirements, the real problem is doing it efficiently. The compliance team needs the relevant information from managers of other departments. This means that the compliance team must email the other departments the form that needs to be filled and then ensure that the information is provided to them before the deadline. Once all the questionnaires are returned after being filled the compliance team then goes through them and attests the reports after ensuring their accuracy and completeness.

This is easier said than done as there are many factors that make the process inefficient. The whole process is generally handled via emails. The problem is that these emails are just one of the many emails which reach every bank employee’s inbox every day. All the managers that must provide the information for the SOX report have their own priorities and departmental goals. The compliance team must keep track of which managers have not provided the required disclosures and then request the managers to provide the information in a timely manner.

The compliance team needs to keep track of the whole process manually. This is often done through a spreadsheet which a compliance team member manually maintains. Sending out the questionnaires, notifying the managers that have not yet responded, collecting the questionnaires, assessing the questionnaires, and then reporting the results – all these processes are handled via emails without any mechanism to track their progress.

How Compliance Tech Makes SOX Compliance Easier

Compliance management systems provide the organization with a platform that enables streamlined workflows, which in turn makes the process flow smoother and faster. Managing SOX compliance manually means hundreds of emails need to be sent and received and then the record of the information present in the emails needs to be kept in a spreadsheet. Those spreadsheets are then used to create documents that are then disclosed as per SOX requirements.

The SOX process looks very different in a compliance management system. The compliance team does not have to send out any emails. Instead they simply log in to the compliance platform and go to the SOX attestation module screen. Here they choose the template already present on the platform and choose who to send it to. The system then sends the questionnaires to all the managers of other departments. They then log on to the same platform, fulfill the questionnaires, and then send them back through the platform.

The compliance platform keeps track of incoming files. The compliance team no longer needs to track fulfilment – the platform shows them who has submitted the questionnaire and who hasn’t. The compliance team then goes through all the questionnaires and provides remarks within the same platform, which can then compile these remarks into a document that, once approved, fulfills SOX requirements.

Compliance Management Software

Instead of hundreds of emails, the whole process is handled on the platform through notifications. This doesn’t just increase the speed of the process, it also increases the transparency of the process, as all the actions were taken on the same platform and left an electronic audit trail. This also enables visibility for management – the board of directors can look at the status of SOX related activities and intervene if needed.

Streamlined workflows take a complex and time-consuming SOX process and turn it into a simple process that is easily managed and monitored. Similar workflows for other bank compliance processes are also streamlined. When all the time and headaches saved in each process are added up, streamlined workflows emerge as one of the most significant benefits that banks can get from modern compliance technology.

Wondering how your business can easily manage SOX compliance? Get in touch with our compliance experts for a demonstration of Predict360 Certifications and Attestation tool.