Streamlining Compliance Reporting through Intelligent Data Management
A leading banking institution wanted to enhance its regulatory reporting process to better align with compliance requirement.
Client’s primary objective were:
- Improve report accuracy.
- Reduce manual intervention.
- Establish a scalable reporting framework to support ongoing and future requirements.
Challenges
The bank encountered critical challenges that impacted efficiency and accuracy of regulatory reporting along with:
- Data quality issues.
- Dependency on manual processes.
- Fragmented reporting workflows.
- Difficult to trace the data’s journey from source systems to final reports.
Sciente Value/Services
Sciente partnered with the bank to drive the transformation journey with following steps:
- Automation of Regulatory Reports: Enhanced the bank’s existing reporting framework to automate over 40 critical regulatory reports. This initiative significantly reduced manual efforts, streamlined report generation, and improved overall reporting accuracy and timeliness.
- Custom Reporting and Lineage Tools: Designed and implemented scalable, custom-built tools for regulatory reporting and data lineage management. These tools offered centralized capabilities to manage reporting processes and trace data flow, ensuring transparency and audit readiness.
- Enterprise-wide Metadata and Lineage Automation: Implemented automated metadata management and data lineage tracking system for 100+ regulatory reports. This enabled the bank to maintain a comprehensive view of data.
Sciente’s approach focused on creating a future-proof infrastructure along with addressing client’s current pain areas.
Outcome and Benefits
The engagement delivered tangible business and operational benefits, including:
- Improved Accuracy and Timeliness: Automated workflows reduced the risk of errors and shortened report preparation cycles, enhancing the bank’s ability to meet regulatory deadlines consistently.
- Improved Data Governance: With automated lineage tracking and metadata management systems, the bank achieved greater visibility and traceability of data, supporting audit and compliance requirements more effectively.
- Operational Efficiency: Streamlined reporting processes led to reduced manual intervention.
- Scalability and Future-Readiness: The implemented tools and frameworks that were designed to scale across departments, ensuring long-term adaptability to regulatory changes and organizational growth.
Sciente’s collaborative approach empowered the bank to modernize its regulatory reporting ecosystem, improve data quality, and establish a resilient, governance-driven data infrastructure.
Strengthening AML/CFT Compliance with AI, ML, and Real-Time Analytics
A major banking institution aimed to strengthen its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) frameworks by using advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) capabilities. The initiative focused on enhancing compliance surveillance, optimizing existing models, and leveraging data-driven insights to improve the bank’s ability to detect, prevent, and respond to financial crime risks.
Challenges
The bank wanted to stay ahead of evolving financial crime tactics and regulatory expectations. Key challenges included:
- Rising complexity in identifying suspicious activities across high-volume transactions.
- High rates of false positives, leading to investigation fatigue and inefficiencies.
- Inflexible legacy systems unable to adapt to new typologies of financial crime.
- Limited visibility into operational performance of AML/CFT detection engines.
- A growing need for real-time monitoring, reporting, and adaptive compliance tools.
The client’s objective was to modernize its compliance operations, reduce operational risk, and enable proactive detection of money laundering and terrorist financing activities.
Sciente Value/Services
Sciente partnered with the bank to elevate their AML/CFT compliance framework via its “Business Technology Services”, which includes:
- Surveillance System Optimization: Enhanced the performance and coverage of existing compliance surveillance platforms to support BAU operations.
- Advanced Analytics for AML Operations: Conducted deep-dive analytics on AML/CFT datasets, generating actionable insights to support business decisions and compliance reporting.
- AI/ML Model Tuning: Refined machine learning models to improve detection with accuracy and reduce false positives, thereby increasing the precision of alerts and reduced investigation overhead.
- Real-time Monitoring & Automation: Implemented real-time monitoring capabilities and automated reporting workflows which significantly improves operational efficiency.
- Business Collaboration for Issue Resolution: Collaborated with key business stakeholders to address system-level issues and fine-tune complex logic to ensure seamless operational continuity.
- Ongoing Compliance System Support: Provided strategic and technical support across various compliance initiatives, ensuring system is aligned with evolving global AML/CFT standards.
Sciente’s approach ensured a balance between regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, and technological agility.
Outcome and Benefits
The initiative improved bank’s AML/CFT operations:
- Improved Detection Accuracy: Improved AI/ML models enabled more precise identification of suspicious transactions, significantly reducing false positives and improving investigative efficiency.
- Streamlined Compliance Operations: Real-time analytics and automation tools minimized manual workloads and accelerated decision-making.
- Increased Risk Responsiveness: The bank improved its ability to quickly adapt to changing regulatory demands and financial crime patterns.
- Stronger Governance and Insight: Data-driven reporting and visual analytics provided greater transparency and enabled more strategic compliance oversight.
- Future-Ready Compliance Framework: The scalable, optimized infrastructure laid the foundation for sustainable compliance monitoring and continuous improvement.
Through these outcomes, the bank reinforced its commitment to safeguarding the financial ecosystem while enhancing operational resilience and regulatory alignment.
Application Management for Trading, Risk, and Settlement Systems
A global banking institution partnered with Sciente to manage and optimize its end-to-end financial market systems, covering the entire spectrum from Front Office (FO) to Middle Office (MO) and Back Office (BO) operations. The scope included application management across trading, risk management, compliance, and settlement platforms, ensuring operational resilience, regulatory compliance, and business agility.
Challenges
Managing financial market applications from FO to BO showcase unique set of challenges due to the complexity and specialization of banking domains.
Key issues:
- Domain Knowledge: Effective management of financial systems required deep understanding of diverse financial instruments, including derivatives, equities, and fixed-income securities.
- Data Ingestion issues: Seamless integration between FO, MO, and BO platforms requires expertise in trade lifecycle management, risk monitoring, and real-time data flows.
- Platform Specialization: The institution leveraged a wide range of specialized platforms for trading, compliance, and risk analytics that required both technical and domain proficiency.
- Operational Continuity and Responsiveness: Ensuring system availability and regulatory alignment was critical points to handle.
Sciente Value/Services
Sciente delivered comprehensive Application Management Services underpinned by deep financial domain knowledge and modern delivery practices.
Key contributions included:
- End-to-End Application Support: Managed FO, MO, and BO applications across asset classes, including integration, enhancement, and maintenance using Agile and DevOps methodologies.
- Business-Aligned Technology Expertise: Deployed a team of domain specialists proficient in both financial markets and technology platforms, enabling continuous improvement of client systems.
- Agile and DevOps Implementation: Leveraged Agile practices for incremental delivery and DevOps pipelines to automate testing, integration, and deployment, accelerating change cycles and enhancing system responsiveness.
- Real-Time Monitoring and Automation: Established real time monitoring and alerting system.
- Collaboration with Internal Teams: Worked in close partnership with the client’s internal teams to align technology solutions with evolving business requirements and regulatory landscapes.
This holistic approach ensured the bank’s trading and risk systems remained agile, efficient and responsive to dynamic market conditions.
Outcome and Benefits
Sciente’s involvement enabled the bank to realize significant operational and strategic benefits:
- Operational Excellence: Achieved seamless, integrated management of FO to BO systems, reducing friction across the trade lifecycle and improving coordination between functions.
- Improved Domain Efficiency: Leveraged specialized talent with deep trading and risk expertise to enhance system performance and decision-making `.
- Accelerated Change Delivery: DevOps-led automation and Agile practices enabled faster deployment cycles, reduced system downtime, and quicker resolution of issues.
- Enhanced Compliance and Resilience: Real-time monitoring and continuous optimization improved system reliability and ensured readiness for regulatory audits.
- Strategic Flexibility: Built a scalable and adaptable application landscape that supports the bank’s ongoing innovation and competitiveness in the financial markets.
By aligning technology with business imperatives, Sciente empowered the bank to maintain operational stability while continuously innovating its trading and risk ecosystem.
Streamlining Transactional Banking Systems through Strategic Business & Project Support
A leading transactional banking client engaged Sciente to augment their internal teams with business analysis and project management expertise. The engagement focused on supporting IT systems across key functional areas, including cash management, payments, trade finance, and compliance, while driving operational efficiency and regulatory alignment.
Challenges
The client faced multiple challenges in managing and upgrading mission-critical systems.
- Complex Application: Managing interconnected systems across cash, payments, and trade finance functions presented challenges in achieving real-time visibility and operational efficiency.
- Regulatory Compliance: Frequent updates were required to meet evolving AML, KYC, and cross-border regulatory requirements, demanding both agility and precision.
- Fragmented Data: Consolidating data from diverse sources and reconcile them, limit client’s ability to deliver timely & accurate reports.
- Cybersecurity Risks: Growing threats to financial data necessitated tighter controls and proactive risk mitigation strategies.
- Resource Constraints: The client had limited internal bandwidth and specialized expertise to implement system enhancements, streamline workflows, and ensure timely delivery of strategic initiatives.
Sciente Value/Services
Sciente delivered comprehensive business analysis and Project Management Services across multiple areas of transactional banking, enabling improved governance, scalability, and business agility:
- Cash Management: Delivered support for multi-currency liquidity management, real-time balance reporting, receivables optimization, and cash pooling techniques to improve fund utilization.
- Trade Finance: Managed business requirements and enhancements for domestic and international trade solutions, including letters of credit, trade loans, guarantees, and supply chain finance tools like invoice factoring.
- Payments and Collections: Streamlined electronic fund transfers, direct debit processing, and corporate card payment solutions, enabling seamless transaction automation and better cash flow control.
- Digital Channel Enablement: Enabled integration of online platforms, mobile banking apps, and APIs with corporate ERP systems, driving digital transformation and end-user convenience.
- Cross-Border Payments and FX: Facilitated enhancements to systems handling foreign exchange and international remittances, improving transaction accuracy and compliance.
- Compliance and Risk Management: Supported compliance initiatives with a focus on AML, KYC, and internal risk control processes to meet global standards.
- Reporting and Analytics: Delivered customizable dashboards and reporting tools for real-time transaction tracking, liquidity analysis, and regulatory reporting, driving better decision-making across business units.
Sciente’s agile approach ensured strong collaboration between business and IT, allowing for continuous improvement and alignment with strategic objectives.
Outcome and Benefits
Through this engagement, the client experienced tangible improvements across transactional banking operations:
- Operational Efficiency: Streamlined workflows and automation reduced manual overhead and operational bottlenecks.
- Enhanced Compliance Posture: Continuous system updates and risk controls ensured alignment with ever-evolving regulatory frameworks.
- Informed Decision-Making: Real-time reporting and analytics enabled better visibility into cash flow, liquidity, and transaction activity.
- Improved Execution: Sciente’s project governance practices ensured that enhancements were delivered on time, within scope, and aligned with business priorities.
- Resource Optimization: Supplemented internal capacity with experienced business analysts and project managers, ensuring continuity and strategic delivery.
Sciente’s services empowered the bank to build a scalable, responsive, and compliant transactional banking ecosystem.
Agile Testing and Deployment Excellence for Core Banking Integration
A regional bank embarked on a large-scale system consolidation initiative to unify its wholesale banking operations across multiple countries. This transformation involved integrating various platforms and applications, requiring a robust and agile approach to testing and deployment to ensure stability, compliance, and business continuity.
Challenges
The client faced several critical challenges during the system consolidation and integration effort:
- Silo Systems: The new wholesale banking platform involved the integration of numerous legacy systems, requiring rigorous validation of data flows.
- High Risk of Operational Disruption: Any undetected issues could have impacted core banking functions across cash management, trade, and treasury operations.
- Alignment Between Business and IT: Coordinating business requirements with technical teams across countries posed communication and alignment challenges.
- Need for Accelerated Timelines: The consolidation had tight deadlines, necessitating an agile testing framework that could keep pace without compromising quality.
- Manual Testing Limitations: Manual testing alone would not scale to meet the needs of the highly integrated and distributed platform, driving the need for automation.
Sciente Value/Services
Sciente partnered with the bank to deliver a comprehensive testing and deployment framework using agile methodologies and test automation:
- Agile Testing Framework: Deployed testing resources to support iterative sprints, enabling faster identification and resolution of defects.
- User Acceptance Testing (UAT) Leadership: Collaborated with the bank’s UAT stakeholders to interpret business requirements, define test coverage, and validate functionality.
- End-to-End Test Execution: Performed detailed scenario-based testing across integrated systems to ensure business logic, regulatory compliance, and operational accuracy.
- Test Automation Using TOSCA: Utilized TOSCA’s model-based automation capabilities to design reusable, scalable test cases, reducing regression testing effort and improving coverage.
Sciente’s agile-aligned delivery model ensured close collaboration with internal stakeholders, seamless hand-offs, and enhanced responsiveness throughout the testing lifecycle.
Outcome and Benefits
The testing engagement with Sciente delivered several measurable benefits to the regional bank:
- Accelerated Testing Cycles: Agile execution combined with automation shortened testing timelines while ensuring high-quality outcomes.
- Improved Risk Mitigation: Rigorous end-to-end testing reduced the risk of production defects during platform migration.
- Enhanced Business Confidence: UAT involvement and scenario validation ensured that the platform met the expectations of business users and regulators.
- Scalable Testing Approach: The TOSCA automation framework provided reusable test assets, increasing efficiency and reducing future testing efforts.
- Successful Deployment: Enabled a smooth, disruption-free migration to the consolidated wholesale banking platform, with confidence in its operational readiness and system integration quality.
Strategic QA and UAT Services for Finance, Risk, and Operations Transformation
A leading regional bank engaged Sciente to support its Finance, Risk, and Banking Operations teams in the context of a large-scale transformation initiative following multiple acquisitions. The objective was to ensure seamless system integration and maintain operational integrity through robust Test Management, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), and Quality Assurance (QA) services.
Challenges
The engagement involved navigating several critical challenges:
- Business Domain: The bank’s finance, accounting, and risk systems involved complex logic and required functional knowledge across domains like regulatory reporting, asset-liability management (ALM) and credit, market and liquidity risk.
- Post-Acquisition System Integration: The bank had undergone a series of acquisitions, leading to systems that needed to be integrated efficiently and securely without disrupting existing operations.
- Regulatory Compliance Requirement: Stringent regulatory and audit requirements demanded that all systems—especially those tied to financial reporting and risk to be thoroughly validated and aligned with compliance requirements
Sciente Value/Services
Sciente built the team of specialists with domain knowledge and testing experience to address bank’s complex requirements:
- Finance and Risk Domain Expertise: Resources with deep knowledge in financial processes, accounting standards, regulatory frameworks, and risk categories such as credit, market, and liquidity ensured alignment of test cases with business scenarios.
- UAT and Test Management: Delivered end-to-end UAT support, from requirement validation and test case design to execution and defect resolution. Sciente acted as a bridge between IT and business users to ensure functional accuracy.
- Integration Testing Across Acquired Systems: Led the integration testing strategy for systems inherited through acquisitions, validating process flows across finance, operations, and risk applications.
- Compliance-Centric QA: Applied rigorous QA processes tailored to ensure adherence to industry-specific regulations, including internal audit protocols and external compliance standards.
- Stakeholder Collaboration: Worked closely with Finance, Risk, and Ops teams to ensure business continuity, minimize disruptions, and accelerate system rollouts.
Sciente’s consultative approach ensured that testing not only focused on technology but also aligned closely with business outcomes and regulatory expectations.
Outcome and Benefits
The engagement resulted in several tangible business benefits:
- Successful Integration of Acquired Systems: Enabled seamless harmonization of systems and processes across the bank’s expanded landscape, supporting unified operations.
- Regulatory Compliance Assurance: Ensured all integrated systems met regulatory and audit standards before go-live, reducing compliance risk.
- Risk Mitigation: Identified and resolved system and process issues before deployment, minimizing operational disruption and enhancing readiness.
- Enhanced Business Confidence: Provided business teams with confidence in the integrity and performance of the new systems, enabling a smooth and disruption-free transition.
- Strengthened Operational Resilience: Delivered a foundation for scalable, compliant, and well-tested systems that support long-term business continuity and strategic growth.
Building 24×7 Banking Support Through Hire-Train-Deploy Services
A leading banking client partnered with Sciente to establish a resilient 24×7 production support function for its corporate banking business. Sciente provided “Hire-Train-Deploy” (HTD) services, completing the entire talent acquisition and onboarding cycle in just six weeks.
Challenges
Challenges emerged during the engagement:
- Attracting Talent for Shift-Based Roles: Recruiting professionals willing to work in a round-the-clock, three-shift structure proved difficult. Working in shifts requires motivation through clear career pathways, learning opportunities, and competitive compensation.
- Highly Competitive Tech Talent Market: The demand for skilled technology professionals remains extremely high, especially for contract or project-based roles. Filling positions within a tight six-week window required innovative sourcing strategies and compelling value propositions.
- Rapid Ramp-Up Requirement: The bank needed an operationally ready team within a short timeframe, necessitating quick and effective training program with specific systems and tools wrt client’s environment.
- Domain-Specific Readiness: Ensuring that new joiners had both technical proficiency and understanding of banking operations added the complexity of onboarding.
Sciente Value/Services
Sciente’s structured Hire-Train-Deploy framework addressed bank’s needs through a phased and outcome-driven approach:
- Hire: Leveraged Sciente’s proprietary sourcing network and recruitment processes to attract skilled candidates for production support roles. Focused on individuals with the aptitude and availability to work in shift-based environments, prioritizing both technical fit and cultural alignment.
- Train: Developed and executed a focused training curriculum tailored to the bank’s systems, operational workflows, and IT landscape. The training program included assessments to ensure readiness before deployment. This approach ensured day-one effectiveness and reduced ramp-up friction.
- Deploy: Deployed the trained professionals into a structured three-shift model for 24×7 support coverage. The team was integrated directly into the bank’s operations, taking full ownership of monitoring, issue triage, incident resolution, and proactive system optimization.
Outcome and Benefits
The HTD engagement delivered multiple business and operational benefits:
- Accelerated Ramp-Up: Successfully sourced, trained, and deployed a full 24×7 support team within 6 weeks, exceeding client expectations on speed-to-productivity.
- Uninterrupted System Availability: The new support team provided continuous monitoring and quick issue resolution, resulting in improved system uptime and reliability across corporate banking platforms.
- Reduced Internal Workload: By offloading support responsibilities, internal teams were freed to focus on innovation, development, and strategic initiatives.
- Scalability and Flexibility: The HTD model enabled the bank to scale its support capacity as needed, without compromising quality or continuity.
- Domain-Ready Talent: Customized training ensured the deployed professionals were not just technically equipped but also familiar with the bank’s operational context—enhancing support efficiency and user satisfaction.