Regulators scrutinise the way organisations manage their policies and procedures. It is a clear indicator of how a company is conducting its business. When policy management is successful, it can reduce your business risk and provide a centralised source of information. But is your current policy management program working as well as it should be? Are you doing it all manually?
The Fintech, Regtech and the Role Of Compliance 2021 survey by Thomson Reuters found that 38% of firms and 73% of global systemically important financial institutions (G-SIFIs) considered regtech instrumental to operational management. Smart attestation management is helping companies gather the necessary data, refine their processes and speed up business decisions.
What is Attestation Management
Attestation is the process of obtaining “an official verification of something as true or authentic”. Attestation management involves checking the validity of all the data and information collected against agreed-upon procedure engagements. It can be particularly beneficial to monitor compliance procedures or review internal control functions.
For example, you might want to check if your operations follow government regulations. Attestation can evaluate and review data and information compared to your internal controls, a stated purpose, or a system. You can then put steps in place to ensure your operations are 100% compliant. Additionally, you can create risk management policies to prevent problems from happening in the future.
Why is Attestation Management Important for your Company
Attestation is your way, as a company, to give irrefutable proof that something has happened. You can record all your actions. These accurate records mean you can tick all your compliance boxes and meet your regulatory requirements. You can also use attestation for practically anything in your company. This flexible access to data means you can make quicker business decisions.
Managing Company Policies Correctly with Internal Stakeholders
Attestation can help you manage your company’s policies with internal stakeholders. The correct management of policies and procedures is imperative so that your company is not put at risk. Attestation can help you confirm, view, or authenticate that internal stakeholders have up-to-date information or training on company policies. You must set up a system that can track attestations correctly.
It’s also essential that the policies reach the right people in the organisation and at the right time. The icing on the cake is to evaluate how these policies work in practice. Automated solutions can help businesses deal with all the data involved in attestation management. Traditional manual processes tend to be cumbersome in comparison and more costly in the long run.
Boosting Employee Engagement
Attestation can help you empower your employees, leading to improved employee engagement. Attestation can enhance the experiences that employees have with work-related tasks. For example, an employee can receive a gentle notification to do something. This automated notification pushes completion of the action and reduces the time a manager spends “chasing” an employee.
Using Customised Implementations
Companies might be hesitant to invest in a technical solution. The usual concerns are the ease of integration and the cost. But regtech companies are masters in creating customised solutions. This customisation means that implementations are seamless and don’t affect daily operations. Most tech solutions are relatively cheap, and the long-term benefit will negate the initial cost.
Impress the Regulators with Smart Attestation Management
Regulators love it when companies can show accountability for any action within the company. Innovative attestation management allows you to give the regulators precisely what they want. When everything is automated, you can demonstrate both accountability and transparency. It’s also a lot quicker than searching for the appropriate spreadsheet and merging data from multiple sources.
GRC Solutions with Smart Attestation Management
Grath is already helping financial services firms globally with real-time regulatory assurance. Their innovative way of gathering internal and external data aid companies in several ways. It allows firms to determine where their regulatory risks exist accurately. This detailed information helps them prevent breaches and proactively scale up their oversight capabilities.
Benefits of Grath Solutions for Attestation Management
Real-time attestation management gives you instant access to the information that you need. It can also help you to streamline your compliance program. Here are some of the benefits that Grath’s clients enjoy from using their GRC solutions.
- Real-time attestation sign-offs provide companies with detailed insight into their control environment. It informs them of failed tasks and processes and at the point, they occur.
- Management teams can make faster business decisions with more detailed and easily accessible information. When necessary, they can perform interventions across mission-critical business activities.
- Scheduled attestations reduce expensive and time-zapping framework administration. You can use automated system alerts to warn users of upcoming and overdue sign-offs.
Operational Insight and Improved Risk Management
Innovative attestation management can give companies more profound insight into their business processes. This information can help identify problem areas and improve risk management. One of Grath’s clients explains how their solution has helped them.
“Real-time digitised checklists provide us with critical insight into our business operations. We have been using the GRC solution from Grath since 2019, and it has transformed the way in which we identify and manage risk within our business.
With automatic incident creation, failed controls and poorly designed processes have become a thing of the past, requiring root cause analysis to be performed to identify and fix areas of improvement.
All this adds up to a very comprehensive system that we use on a daily basis. There is always a customer focus to the introduction of new features offered within the software, and Grath solutions are highly recommended.”
CCO – International Payments and FX firm
In Conclusion
Attestation is good business sense. It’s an ongoing review and confirmation process that can help organisations reduce their risk. Attestation management can also be critical in measuring the performance of policy management programs. It gives companies accurate data on how well they are doing. It can also improve employee engagement and speed up business decisions.
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Sally Leslie
Sally Leslie is the content editor for Planet Compliance and creates B2B content for businesses, entrepreneurs, and startups. She has a PR degree and a background in business development and sales. Sally is passionate about motivation, time management, and the world of financial technology.