Recognizing and adapting to risk is one of the biggest challenges financial institutions face and it is a problem that is becoming more and more complex. Banker’s Toolbox recognizes this trend and believes in having an enterprise-level view of risk is the only way to truly understand the threats to an institution. With so few institutions having the capability, much less the personnel, to address this type of strategic need, the challenge becomes how do financial institutions gather data and review it systematically to provide their executives and board of directors the intelligence needed to make strategic business decisions based on an institution’s risk. This is the problem Banker’s Toolbox is trying to help financial institutions solve.
The Importance of Enterprise Risk Management:
An ERM solution provides a holistic view of all the material risk a financial institution faces and is integrated with key decision-making processes across the organization. It gives executives and the board of directors an all-encompassing view of risk areas of the institution in one centralized location, streamlining a way to identify, measure, monitor and control risk. Often, risk management is siloed into various systems and executives have to piece together reports from multiple systems to attempt to see their entire risk profile. From a centralized ERM dashboard model, they can generate valuable reports so the board, who is ultimately responsible and liable, can appropriately understand the risk and thus govern effectively.
There is a greater focus on governance at an institution where the board and senior management should have a heightened awareness of the bank’s risk profile and mitigation efforts – i.e. risk governance & corporate governance. Larger institutions, with over $750 billion in assets, are subject to higher standards in this arena. These “heightened” standards eventually make their way to community banks, especially those with complex risk profiles, often in a subdued version.
Basic steps, such as developing reports that compare and aggregate risk concentrations across business lines, industries and geographies, can provide valuable insight into a bank’s vulnerabilities to economic and market trends. Having an ERM solution is an integral part of an institution’s success.
Mitigating Risk Across the Organization:
The risk that financial institutions face encompasses more than monetary transactions. It covers all aspects of a financial institution from credit to lending to strategy and even an institution’s reputation. Knowing that, Banker’s Toolbox CEO, Wayne Roberts, a leader with more than 30 years of experience in the technology industry, set out to continue to trailblaze a path in the industry and cultivate the next generation of product innovation. Under his tutelage, Banker’s Toolbox acquired two industry-leading companies in the allowance software solutions sector in 2018, Main Street Technologies and Sageworks. Main Street Technologies (MST) is a pioneer of allowance software solutions for financial institutions and supports institutions in their most critical quarterly calculations with increasingly comprehensive and sophisticated automation. Sageworks is a leading fintech company that develops innovative solutions to make financial data easier to understand through their banking platform.
At the end of 2018, the three companies combined to become a growing leader in the enterprise risk management field. Under this new, united umbrella, the organization has set goals to create and develop software which brings an institution’s entire risk portfolio into the same dashboard. This would allow everyone from the back office to the C-Suite to the board of directors the opportunity to get a holistic perspective of their risk profile and make better-informed business decisions.
Together, Banker’s Toolbox combines the continued success of these three companies into one company, designed to bring a larger view of risk together onto one platform. Taking a strategic high-growth plan, they aim to be the industry leader in enterprise risk management software. Not settling for just AML and allowance software, the leadership team continues to look for additional products to add to their successful portfolio and continue to lead the company on a path of stable growth.
Dedicated to Their Customers:
Through all of this progress, one thing has remained steadfastly important and will continue to be a guiding principle at Banker’s Toolbox: the success of their customers. The company believes in offering “Success, not just software” and it is a motto that continues to inspire them through their mergers and acquisitions. The staff is dedicated to helping their customers succeed beyond providing the software to do so. The three companies combine to bring together above a 90% customer retention rate, not only adding to their growth but confirming their dedication to their customers.
Combining high customer retention rates, strong patterns of growth and proven leaders in the enterprise risk space positions Banker’s Toolbox on the precipice of the financial technology industry.
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