Wealth Managers take into account client suitability for making specific investments or offering trading advice 
BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS | Regulatory environment requires a private bank to do a suitability check of its clients before making any specific investment or trading advice. The suitability of a client for investing in a desired product is determined based on client’s personal & financial profile, transaction history and client’s response to a questionnaire that covers background in alternative investments and payment of taxes among others. This information is utilized by
- INVESTMENT ADVISORS before giving any specific advices
- BRANCH MANAGERS to determine suitability of product portfolio for the branch’s clientele
- RISK MANAGERS for managing the compliance violation risk at location level as well as at an organizational level. The bank wanted to automate the workflow for performing client suitability check and wanted to keep the suitability data at a central place for ready use and MIS reporting purposes.
HEADSTRONG IMPLEMENTATION | With its extensive experience in Wealth Management and Regulatory compliance, Headstrong was able to successfully address the client’s key requirements in its solution. Headstrong team of analysts interviewed the various stakeholders and came out with a conceptual brief for addressing the needs of investment advisors, branch managers, risk managers and the operations team. After verifying the brief, Headstrong created a prototype and tested it with the various stakeholders. Design and development was carried at one of the global delivery centers of Headstrong. The team designed a distributed, secure web-based intranet solution with a list of user-friendly screens for implementing the suitability approval workflow. The application is being rolled out in Europe and will be followed by roll out in North America and Asia Pacific.
BENEFIT TO CUSTOMER | The client suitability checks were being done manually earlier with all data being captured in the form of excel sheets, emails etc. Workflow automation significantly improved productivity of investment advisors and reduced the risk of compliance violation. Rolling out of new products to existing clientele also became much smoother and hassle-free as compared to the older manual process.
CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR | Headstrong’s understanding of suitability business process flow and wealth management were critical in successful completion of project. Prototyping served as a very effective tool in capturing business requirements and getting buy-ins from all the stakeholders. Global delivery model of Headstrong proved cost effective and efficient. It’s proven experience in extending the project management both onsite and offshore was also critical to the success of the project.