Banks & investment managers to secure reconciliations | Gresham

Banks and investment managers do way too many reconciliations. In fact, some data doesn’t even need to be reconciled, and no one should be telling you that you need to do more recs. Many financial services organisations are now realising that having a holistic view of recs on one platform is making more sense now than ever, especially as North America marches towards T+1 settlement.

There’s no shortage of different types of reconciliations, ranging from real-time to batch, from throw-away to enterprise level, and from regulatory to corporate actions. With greater complexity driven by expanding regulatory requirements and the need to support accelerated settlements across jurisdictions, financial services organisations are seeking both a global standard and regional cooperation across reconciliation, with the ability to sustain the entire scope of rec types on one engine.

What we know about today’s recs landscape

Organisations have the same data in multiple business units, databases, and platforms. We know how easily that data can become disparate, inconsistent, and just plain wrong across the front, middle, and back offices. And when that happens, organisations immediately turn to reconciliation to solve the problem.

But then you end up with too many recs, the same pieces of data being reconciled over and over again— causing significant redundancy of time and resources. Then there’s the preponderance of reconciliation silos throughout the organisation, with different recs residing in multiple spreadsheets, databases, and enterprise platforms.

All these issues make getting a holistic view of all your recs extremely difficult, causing disparity in general ledgers and point-to-point reconciliations, with the same data ending up in multiple databases and silos.

Five benefits of consolidating reconciliation

Consolidating all your disparate reconciliations onto one solution can provide several key advantages:

1. Holistic view of data
   When multiple reconciliation processes are handled by different systems and spreadsheets, it can be challenging to get complete visibility into your organisation’s financial data. No one database is known to be truly accurate. But the only database in the enterprise that has quality-assured data is the one that is driven by an advanced rec engine. 
   
   By consolidating all reconciliations into one enterprise solution, you’ll have a centralised database that can be easily queried and analysed, leading to more accurate reporting and improved decision-making.
   
   
2. Improved data analytics
   Disparate systems and multiple spreadsheets make it hard to keep up with the demands of fast-moving markets. When all reconciliation processes are handled by one system, data analytics can be applied to a unified database. This can provide deeper insights into financial trends, identify discrepancies and further enhance decision-making.
   
   
3. Reporting and compliance
   The consequences of reporting inaccuracies can be severe. With regulators holding senior managers personally responsible for a firm’s mistakes, having high-quality data, automation and control is essential to ensure complete, accurate and transparent compliance, trade, and regulatory reporting.
   
   When reconciliation is consolidated, you gain better control and confidence over your data and reporting. with confidence in a complex regulatory environment, knowing that what you are sending is accurate, complete, and timely. The more flexible your centralised recs engine, the better your ability to build complex, n-way controls from multiple disparate data sources to give you the data integrity upi need to tackle even the most complicated regulatory and reporting use cases.
   
   
4. Streamlined IT resources 
   Spreadsheets go wrong because… spreadsheets go wrong! And very often on the day the only person who knows the spreadsheet goes on vacation or leaves your company. Maintaining multiple systems and spreadsheets can be time-consuming for IT staff to maintain.
   Consolidating reconciliations can free up your IT resources to focus on other tasks. It can also simplify the process of updating, upgrading, and maintaining the system.
   
   
5. Reduced complexity and cost
   Managing multiple systems and spreadsheets can be complex and increase the risk of errors. Consolidating into one enterprise solution can simplify the reconciliation process, reduce the risk of errors and improve accuracy.
   Having one enterprise reconciliation solution can also reduce your total cost of ownership since your IT resources will be streamlined, your license and maintenance fees reduced, and workflows made more efficient.

A frictionless future

Complex data, processes, and disjointed technology are making organisations more cluttered, ultimately holding them back. As markets move and evolve quickly, banks and investment managers need to focus on reducing complexity to fuel agility and growth. 

Connected financial markets should be frictionless. From operational transformation to platform innovation, technology should reduce complexity and break down barriers to growth.

Modern technologies have flexibility, security, and scalability at their core. They’re built to remove friction, set free your ambition and keep you in control.

So clear the clutter by consolidating reconciliation and let’s get down to business by creating a more simplified, frictionless, and compliant day-to-day experience.