The Financial Services Compensation Scheme is crucial for protecting consumers and preserving market stability. It requires its members to submit timely regulatory SCV reports to serve as a safety net for consumers if a financial institution fails.
Due to the growing volume of data and the intricacy of regulatory requirements, manual FSCS SCV reporting is now laborious and prone to errors. Hence, financial institutions are turning to FSCS SCV regulatory reporting software solutions to address these challenges. These software technologies optimise the reporting process, automate data collection and validation, and assist organisations in meeting regulatory deadlines efficiently.
This blog will present a thorough checklist of features that financial institutions should look for when selecting FSCS SCV regulatory reporting software.
Features to Consider While Selecting the FSCS Regulatory Reporting Software
When choosing reporting software, it is critical to examine regulatory reporting software features that help simplify the process, ensure accuracy, and improve compliance. Here are some key factors to evaluate:
Data Integration
- The FSCS SCV regulatory reporting software should be smoothly integrated with your existing financial systems, such as core banking systems, general ledgers, and CRM platforms, eliminating manual data entry.
- Should be simple to import the necessary data, identify the individuals and entities that need to be reported, and generate reports on exclusion, effectiveness, and completeness.
- Should offer API integration to automate data exchange with external system, enabling real-time data updates.
- Must offer third-party integrations to verify data against the trusted databases.
- Must possess robust data mapping capabilities to ensure accurate and consistent data flow between systems, identifying and mapping relationships between data items.
Data Automation
- The FSCS SCV regulatory reporting software must extract data from various sources, such as databases, spreadsheets, and flat files, reducing human error.
- Have built-in data cleansing capabilities that promotes identification and rectification of errors, inconsistencies, and duplicates, ensuring reliable reporting data.
- Facilitate multi-level data validations and control procedures using AI-based fuzzy logic to maintain data quality.
- Should include the regulatory reporting software feature to prevent data duplication and generate accurate SCV reports quickly in the Regdata.
- Detect incorrect customer/account holder data, account segregation, and other issues.
- Should be able to convert data to a format suitable for FSCS reporting, leveraging data aggregation, calculations, and formatting features.
- Provide automated workflows to enhance the efficiency of the reporting process by specifying necessary actions and automating repetitive tasks.
Customisation Options
- The software should offer report customisation to meet organisational and regulatory needs, allowing users to add, remove, or alter fields, set custom filters, and specify reporting formats.
AI-based Algorithms
- Check whether the FSCS SCV regulatory reporting software possesses AI-powered algorithms to boost reporting accuracy by detecting inconsistencies, account segregation, data duplication, and forecasting future changes.
- Analyse vast amounts of data, detect inaccurate customer and account holder information, merge duplicate records, and predict future regulatory changes, assuring FSCS compliance.
Real-time Reporting
- The FSCS SCV regulatory reporting software should allow access to real-time data, reducing the likelihood of errors and delays caused by manual data collecting and processing.
- Must provide a regular central patch update on new FSCS findings, modifications to the rules, and changes to the audit criteria.
- This feature enables FIs towards quick decision-making, regulatory adaptation, and risk detection.
Comprehensive Dashboard
- The regulatory reporting software’s dashboard should be interactive, allowing users to easily navigate and interact with the data. Users should be able to drill down into details, adjust parameters, and customise the view according to their needs.
- Highlight potential errors in reporting data, such as inconsistencies or anomalies, to alert users of data quality issues that may require attention.
- Provide quick access links to the key modules of the reporting software, allowing users to seamlessly navigate to relevant sections without leaving the reporting dashboard. This can streamline the user experience and improve data analysis and management efficiency.
- The regulatory reporting software should prioritise user experience and accessibility, ensuring that users can efficiently access and interpret the reporting data.
Simplified Bank Configuration & Settings
- The regulatory FSCS SCV reporting software should offer an intuitive setup process for configuring bank-specific settings.
- Allow easy input and adjustment of customer data, account details, reporting formats, and other unique bank operations information.
- Offer tools for configuring the bank’s profile, including account segregations, dataset linking, and managing data integration.
Version Control
- Confirm that the FSCS SCV reporting software offer robust version control features to manage changes to regulatory reporting templates, data structures, and submission requirements, maintaining accuracy and consistency in FSCS reporting submissions over time.
Audit History & Comparison Features
- A comprehensive audit trail that tracks changes made to data and configurations, ensuring transparency and facilitating analysis of data evolution over time.
- Capable of comparing audit trails from different reporting periods, enabling users to identify trends, discrepancies, and patterns.
- Detect variations or inconsistencies in the data, ensuring data integrity and minimising the risks associated with inaccurate reporting.
Security Features
- Robust security protocols like encryption, data masking, and secure transmission to prevent unauthorised access.
- Adherence to ISO 27001 standards for information security management and ISO 27701 standards for privacy information management are an added advantage for the right FSCS SCV reporting system ensuring data security.
- Verify that the software provider has robust measures in place to safeguard Personally Identifiable Information (PII) when using public cloud services.
- Address OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities, follow secure coding practices, conduct regular VAPT security testing, and effectively implement OWASP recommended security controls to mitigate risks effectively throughout its development lifecycle.
- Should implement granular user access controls that ensure only authorised individuals can access specific data and reporting features.
- Allow creation of user groups with specific permissions based on roles, ensuring data security and regulatory compliance.
Third Party Integration
- Ensure that the software offers integration with third-party data sources so as to enhance FSCS SCV reporting by providing valuable information and ensuring data accuracy.
- These sources include the FCA Database, Royal Mail DB, Companies House, Charities Register, BFPO Address, and OFAC Sanction List.
- Should validate customer information, improve data accuracy, ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and aid in customer due diligence and identify potential risks.
Migration Capability
- Check if the regulatory software can seamlessly migrate data from existing systems to the new FSCS regulatory reporting solution, minimising disruption to operations and ensuring data integrity from diverse sources and formats.
Data-Rich Reporting & Analytics
- The FSCS SCV regulatory reporting software should offer robust capabilities for data-rich reporting, enabling financial institutions to generate comprehensive reports for FSCS submission.
- Unified view of customer data, contact details, account information, and aggregate balance details, adhering to FSCS regulatory requirements.
- Automated data cleansing, validation, and error detection functionalities to maintain data integrity and generate precise reports for regulatory submissions.
- Seek a solution that seamlessly integrates with SSIS for efficient data orchestration and fulfillment.
- Support integration with advanced data analysis tools like Power BI to enhance analytics capabilities and provide in-depth insights into the FSCS data.
- Ensure the software utilises AI-based computing algorithms and logics to perform trend analysis, risk assessment, and data governance to enhance decision-making and regulatory compliance.
Regulatory Compliance
- Choose a FSCS SCV regulatory reporting software that ensures “Green Status Adherence” with PRA for banks, building societies, credit unions, and other financial institutions, providing confidence in its compliance capabilities.
Efficiency Gains
- Seek a solution that can shorten your FSCS SCV reporting time, improving operational efficiency and reducing the regulatory reporting time.
- Look for a software platform that offers backup and disaster recovery features, ensuring 99.99% uptime and complete support for business continuity for audit purposes.
Is Your FSCS SCV Regulatory Reporting Software Recognised by FCA?
Most importantly, it is crucial to ensure that the FSCS SCV reporting software provider has FCA recognised as an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) to submit reports electronically to RegData. This authorisation is a fundamental requirement for financial institutions to meet their regulatory obligations efficiently and effectively.
Beyond Software
Technical and Compliance Expertise
Look for software providers that offer a technical team with expertise in FSCS regulations and advanced technological capabilities, providing invaluable support in navigating complex and ever-changing compliance landscapes in advance, offering tailored guidance, and troubleshooting technical issues effectively.
Software Maintenance and Support
Ensure that the software provider offers comprehensive maintenance and support services to address any software-related issues promptly. This includes continuous monitoring, regular updates to align with evolving regulations, and swift resolution of any technical challenges to minimise disruptions to your reporting processes.
Ensuring Compliance with the Right FSCS Reporting Framework
Drawing on over two decades of experience in UK financial services regulations, Macro Global provides comprehensive support for organisations navigating complex regulatory reporting requirements. Our subject matter experts (SMEs) collaborate with clients to evaluate existing reporting frameworks, identify areas for improvement, and implement practical solutions designed to streamline compliance efforts.
Our Business Consulting team focuses on aligning governance and operational practices with regulatory standards, ensuring that reporting structures are both effective and adaptable to evolving requirements.
Here’s how we can assist:
- Assessment and Analysis: Conduct an in-depth readiness assessment to understand the maturity of an organisation’s data model, laying the groundwork for enhanced data governance and regulatory alignment.
- Strategy Deployment: Offering targeted recommendations to address gaps in data management practices, improve governance frameworks, and establish a robust reporting architecture.
- Framework Implementation: Supporting the adoption of a Data Governance Maturity Model, which includes clearly defined processes, controls, and business rules for ongoing governance and compliance.
- Regulatory Solution Implementation: Helping organisations implement the right FSCS SCV solutions tailored to their needs, reducing the complexities associated with regulatory compliance.
- Continuous Improvement: Ensuring sustainable high-quality data management through:
- Data Validation: Ensuring that data from various sources adheres to established business rules.
- Data Quality Assurance: Identifying and addressing issues, prioritising them based on risk.
- Data Deduplication: Using advanced matching techniques to cleanse duplicate records.
- Data Enrichment: Enhancing existing information by filling gaps in incomplete data.
Macro Global helps organisations achieve data integrity, accuracy, and consistency within the necessary timeframes by overseeing implementation operations and concentrating on end-to-end governance frameworks.
The result:
Our strategy guarantees that businesses have a dependable, well-organised reporting method that streamlines compliance and advances their overarching business goals.
SCV Alliance
FSCS SCV Audit Platform
