How Finastra Turns Risk Insights Into a Competitive Advantage

In our Spotlight on Success series, Andrew Guasp, Senior Internal Auditor at Finastra, shares why they chose Optro to replace a manual environment when building out a brand new team. Finastra is one of the world’s leading financial technology companies, serving 90 of the top 100 global banks by asset size. Hear how this FinTech company uses Optro to get visibility into risk across the company, and download the software criteria evaluation matrix that the Finastra team used during their software evaluation process.

• Leveraging CrossComply, RiskOversight, and OpsAudit to navigate the complex world of international financial regulations.
• Using business-facing dashboards to improve workflows and save time for all teams due to improved data access and transparency.
• Gaining a competitive advantage from having an organization-wide visibility into risk.

What challenges did you face in a manual environment, and what was your vision for implementing technology at the company?

“I’d been here about seven or eight months before we started the process of looking for a software automation tool. When we were assessing different software companies and going through the pros and cons of each, one of the biggest things that stuck out with Optro was the configurability. A lot of other software providers were stuck in their ways, but Optro is really open to innovation to meet our needs.”

Download Finastra’s Software Evaluation Criteria Matrix

Tell us about efficiencies you’ve gained by centralizing information in Optro?

“Prior to implementing Optro, everything was very manual. It was all dealt with through emails. Now all the data, controls, and risk assessments in Optro can be linked to dashboards configured for specific groups. Management is the first line of defense, so they need to know what’s going on with their controls, and when their controls are failing. They may think that their controls are operating perfectly, but previously they didn’t have a view into the information about what’s really happening. Through PowerBI and centralized data in Optro, we’ve now been able to give them that information whenever they need to access it.”

Finance is a very heavily regulated industry. Can you talk a little bit about how Optro has helped you gain visibility into risks across the organization?

“Optro is giving us a unified look at risk across the company— not just internal audit’s risks but also ERM’s risks, and any other department that has specialized risk functionalities — giving us a place where we can create one gigantic risk universe for the company. As a FinTech company, we’re constantly trying to innovate. We need to know the risks we should be cognizant of in new areas, so that visibility changes the game for us and puts us ahead of the competition.”

Since the improved Optro workflow has freed up time for you personally, what have you been able to take on with that time savings?

“Now that we have Optro, my role has significantly changed. I’ve taken on way more special projects. If we didn’t have Optro I would still be doing day-to-day admin work and a lot of hands-on auditing. Now I’m being elevated to another level — I get a lot of exposure to the rest of the company helping implement Optro, and also get involved in special projects.”