Askari Bank Limited, a leading banking institution in Pakistan, has optimized its Compliance and Risk processes through automation to strengthen regulatory compliance by collaborating with industry leader SAS. By using Governance & Compliance Manager (SAS GCM) Solutions from SAS, the bank aims to confidently address changing regulatory requirements, and ensure greater efficiency, effectiveness and transparency in performance.
The collaboration between Askari Bank Limited and SAS was facilitated by The Risk Advisor (TRA), a leading, independent global risk management consultancy, having a presence in Pakistan, that provides intelligence, investigations and security services.
Askari Bank Limited caters to the commercial banking service industry of Pakistan. With more than 1.5 million customers, the bank continues to focus on growth by improving service quality, investment in technology and people. In its Q1FY22 report, the State Bank of Pakistan revealed that mobile banking users reached a total of 11.3 million, and internet banking users conducted 30 million transactions amounting to approximately PKR 1.9 trillion. As customers become increasingly comfortable with digitization of banking services resulting in new regulations, the bank aims to overcome the challenge of achieving transparency across its operational risk and compliance environment specially Enterprise Compliance Risk Management area and offer more visibility to the leadership. Streamlining processes through a single platform that can automate workflows, record, disseminate, follow-up and consolidate results is another priority to ensure team members are more collaborative and connected.
“We understand that automation is a necessity today to manage and meet employee, customer and regulator expectations” said Syed Ali Raza Zaidi, Chief Compliance officer and Head of Compliance Division at Askari Bank Limited. “Digitization has become a priority for us and bank is continuously investing on this area. One of the most important things to bring continuous improvement through automations in our processes, where possible and improve our outputs. Since collaboration is key to achieve this objective, technology solutions that align with our processes and regulations are also equally important to have the visibility we require and act accordingly. A technology partner like SAS is also necessary to turn this challenge into an opportunity so that we can work in an efficient and effective way.”
SAS Governance & Compliance Manager (SAS GCM) Solutions are designed to create a risk and Compliance awareness culture within banks. SAS also offers solutions which include mix of Asset and Liability management, credit risk management, risk governance, insurance risk management and scenario-based analysis to identify opportunities and challenges within business operations. All these solutions work together to offer banks a holistic view of their risk and compliance processes.
“At SAS, we believe it is important for companies to keep pace with advancing technology and the dynamic nature of regulations. Our Risk Management Solutions are designed to exactly meet these objectives. From offering transparency across processes and analysis to having a clearer picture of operations and insights, we have the expertise and capability to ensure companies can use these solutions for the benefit of their stakeholders” said Bassem Bohsali, Professional Services Director, UAE and Emerging Middle Eastat SAS.
