Keeping finance data safe and compliant

Data security and compliance are now core to day-to-day life in many industries, and certainly in the banking and finance world. The combination of increased data volumes, tightening compliance rules and rising customer expectations (both for security and user experience) means that many businesses in the sector need to take more action.

Getting security and compliance right is a tricky balancing act. On one hand, there is the pressing need to avoid data breaches, because of the financial, legal, operational and reputational damage they can cause. But on the other hand, consumers want to be able to access key banking services online any time, anywhere: according to Forbes, more than half of consumers now prefer online and mobile app-enabled banking

So what is the best way forward from a security and compliance perspective?

The consequences of neglecting data security and compliance

Firstly, to understand why it’s important to ramp up approaches to security and compliance, it’s vital to appreciate the sheer scale of the consequences when things go wrong. If these issues aren’t addressed, then data breaches become more likely, which can therefore generate financial penalties, legal action, damage to the brand, a loss of trust from customers and employees, and seriously disrupted operations. All of these can seriously harm a business’s viability and competitive advantage.

To ensure the risk of these consequences is minimised, businesses in the sector have to negotiate several pressing challenges:

• Evolving cybercrime: cyberthreats are changing all the time, and growing in size and sophistication. It’s a constant battle to stay one step ahead of bad actors and put robust security measures in place
• Tightening privacy regulations: data privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA are especially complex for finance firms to deal with, and to ensure that they’re always handling data legally and responsibly
• Data access and management: balancing security with accessibility and access authorisation is a constant challenge for every firm in the sector, especially if data management and access isn’t fully integrated
• Incident response: firms have to be able to respond quickly and effectively when security incidents arise, so that disruption and financial loss can be minimised and public trust maintained
• Auditing and documentation: the demands on finance companies to keep comprehensive information on security and compliance measures are strong. This is not only important for auditing reasons, but also supports internal monitoring. Nonetheless, it can be an expensive and resource-intensive undertaking
• New ways of working: increased digitisation and flexible working, especially post-pandemic, has changed the how, where and when of data access by customers and employees alike. This has reshaped what is required to keep sensitive information like personal data and financial records safe

Implementing an Enterprise Content Management solution

What often makes the above even more difficult is when data is scattered across multiple digital systems, or across an array of filing cabinets if still in physical form. Managing all of this can swallow up large amounts of time, money and skilled human resources who could be of much better use elsewhere within a business.

At SCC, we’re already solving these problems for banking and finance firms just like yours through our Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solution. This brings the oversight and security of all of your data into a single platform for more efficient and robust management.

Physical data can be integrated with this through our document management and scanning services, which convert them into secure digital formats for better security and ease of access. Where hard copies are still required to be retained for legal reasons, we can optimise processes through digitisation while respecting the legal need for printed documents.

The safer way to manage your data

Not only does our ECM solution ease the process of data management and oversight, but it also embeds the best possible security solutions across all your information. In cases like leaks of Freedom of Information requests, it prioritises security and sensitive data is restricted to authorised personnel. That way, you can meet rigorous regulatory standards and minimise the risk of a breach, but without compromising accessibility to that data by authorised employees and customers.

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