Keeping Up With Bank Network Management
As with most industries, COVID-19 altered bank network management in significant ways. The new remote world forced technological advancements—most notably, the days of traveling to connect with your network are behind us. At CENTRL we’ve observed a rapid evolution in processes and technology. The following sections explore some of the ways financial institutions can benefit from this change.
Automation for Bank Network Management
Automation for bank network management reduces manual work, saves time, and boosts overall efficiency. Almost every piece of the network management process can be automated—here’s how.
- Automation of DDQs can have an immense impact on the network management process. Templates such as AFME and Wolfsberg are a good starting point. These can be built upon with individual proprietary questionnaires as well. This automation can save countless hours for network managers. But remember, when using standard templates, if you alter their content, they’re no longer standard - so automation may be negatively impacted.
- Auto-assign questions and sections within your organization for evaluations with a bank network management platform.
- Pre-populate answers from previous cycles to save time. Show only updates on items that have changed from the year before.
- Lastly, auto-score yes / no and multiple choice answers to expedite the review process.
Scaling Bank Network Management
The need to scale network management at scale has accelerated since 2020. With agent banks spread across the world and travel restrictions in place, network managers need to be able to connect remotely and conveniently. A software platform is essential for conducting due diligence effectively, but it can also support remote communication. This technology allows you to:
- Email notifications and reminders to requestors and approvers at every step of the process
- Quickly search and take action on items that are pending approvals
- Bulk approve and bulk create actions for greater efficiency
- Leverage operational analytics and reporting to manage day-to-day activities more effectively and extract insights for data-driven decision-making
Tapping into Analytics
Much of the value that can be realized in network management comes from analytics. Having convenient access to raw and aggregated data is key to informed decision-making. With the right tools, managers and custodians can provide detailed analytics at the agent bank and portfolio levels. The ability to drill down on a granular level is invaluable for anyone invested in the broader view.
Analytics tools also provide dashboards to track the progress of DDQs, issues, and assignments. These features enable your managers to run benchmarks and auto-generate executive and summary reports from DDQ data. Further, you can customize these dashboards to your preferences—including everything from default filters to data visualizations—to retrieve the information you need quickly.
BNM360 is the most comprehensive platform for automating the global network and custodian monitoring process. BNM360 includes modules for complete automation of the DDQ and RFP process, managing the centralized agent bank and account database, and automated workflows for account opening and the account recertification process. In addition to automated workflows, BNM360 provides centralized document repositories, issue management, powerful analytics and easy-to-use portals for agent banks. Learn more about BNM360 here.
