News

Accenture data analytics utility aims to help small, medium-size FIs manage risk

April 3, 2018

A new cloud-based data analytics utility from Accenture promises to help U.S. banks perform risk-management and other activities more efficiently and cost-effectively than they could do on their own, according to a press release.

Developed in collaboration with the Mid-Sized Bank Coalition of America, a consortium of U.S. banks with assets of $8 billion to $50 billion, the utility will focus initially on risk management capabilities, including anti-money laundering compliance.

Utility members share data that can help them collectively fight financial crime collectively by identifying abnormal behavior patterns and illicit activity detected by member banks.

The solution provides an application store and data marketplace with analytics tools, data models and reports, and application program interfaces. Users can share their innovations by uploading them back to the store, where they will also find future releases of products and services.

According to a press release, the solution can result in:

• Enhanced productivity — Analytics-driven insights allow banks to make faster decisions with fewer false positives.
• Reduced compliance costs — The utility can boost the productivity of financial crime prevention teams and reduce or eliminate reliance on third-party providers.
• Reduced risk profile — The utility can help FIs fine-tune policies, standards, processes and procedures to better control for BSA/AML risks.
• Shared and customizable data visualization capabilities — The utility eliminates the need for banks to start from scratch to develop risk-mitigation dashboards and scenarios.
• Standardized data structure — The utility supports consistency between key reporting frameworks and regulatory requirements, integrating updates as regulations change.

Eventually, the utility will add functionality that allows members to run analytics-intensive operations for a variety of bank functions, including cybersecurity and third-party risk management.

Also in the future, the utility will coordinate with FinCEN Exchange, a program of the U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, to enable collaboration with regulators and end-users in the law enforcement community, the release said.