Shortly after SCOPE FinTech Solutions launched the Client Portal platform, the Today’s Group and SCOPE entered into a partnership to optimize the client onboarding process using the Client Portal. The SCOPE Client Portal offers clients and asset managers a platform where, in a user-friendly, efficient, and secure manner, the client data required to determine and continuously monitor the client’s risk profile and the onboarding process can be collected.
Step 1: the MiFID II-based client assessment
The first step in this process involved implementing the intake side of the Client Portal, both by clients and by Today’s Group employees. This step has now been completed, and all clients have a client file in the Client Portal. As part of this project, an integration was also developed with the Emily Portfolio Management System, allowing clients to view all investment results, reports, and communications via the Client Portal. This provides Today’s Group with a user-friendly and accessible platform for clients to access all their information and data, while also complying with the requirements of the GDPR.
Step 2: client risk assessment & monitoring
An important part of the onboarding/client acceptance process is conducting an internal risk assessment of the client, which leads to a risk conclusion. To conduct a risk assessment, various risk factors are identified and synthesized to arrive at a central conclusion at the client level. The various components and the conclusion are monitored and periodically updated based on the classification and the organization’s own risk policy.
SCOPE FinTech Solutions developed the risk assessment component as part of the Client Portal, and this component has since been successfully implemented and put into use by the Today’s Group. This enables Today’s Group to automatically generate a risk assessment for all clients based on preconfigured policies, so that it can be reviewed and approved. This ensures that the process is carried out for every client in a consistent manner, and since everything is documented in a certified PDF report as part of the client file, it is easy to reproduce.
One component of the risk assessment is conducting a UBO investigation when necessary and screening the client for PEPs, sanctions, adverse media, and the like. The compliance check is therefore a standard part of the Client component in the risk assessment. The results of any issues identified are, of course, automatically factored into the risk calculation.
Monitoring risk
Since compliance with laws and regulations is an ongoing requirement, it is important not only to screen a client upon admission and ensure they meet acceptance criteria, but also to monitor this status over time. After all, a client’s situation can change over time, and this—in combination with your policies or laws and regulations—may require action, for example, if one of your clients has become a PEP. The monitoring function is designed specifically for this purpose. It allows you to focus on other tasks while your clients are being monitored. How does it work? You add a client to the monitoring list, and that client is then screened daily against all sources and changes in underlying lists; if a match is found, you receive a notification to review and address the match.
Future
Client risk assessments may change due to shifts in laws and regulations or adjustments to your own underwriting policies or risk value assessments. It is therefore important that risk assessment sets are flexible and can be adapted and expanded in the future as needed. Underwriting policies for different brands or client groups/types may also vary, and this must be configurable. In close consultation with our first clients, this component has therefore been designed to be flexible, ensuring it is future-proof.
We wish the Today’s Group every success in creating and monitoring client risk assessments!
