These worries multiply when dealing with financial documents in paper form, which are often hard to find, easy to lose track of, expensive to reproduce, time-consuming to distribute and a liability when held onto for too long.
This is why those seeking to control financial information and reduce compliance concerns turn to document management software for help.
The paper generated by finance comprises anything from meeting notes, presentations and research to advisory agreements, portfolio recommendations and asset allocations. The paper received by finance includes anything from account paperwork, client correspondence and newsletters to investment statements, appraisals and tax returns.
While it helps to understand what paper documents filter in and out of your business, it’s also important to understand what rules and regulations are attached to each document. This positions your business to handle these documents in a secure and controlled manner.
What document management for financial institutions does is automatically apply these rules and regulations to each document and to the workflow the documents are part of. This lessens your required attention on securing client data and reducing compliance risk, and strengthens your ability to provide better, more efficient service to your customers – all while eliminating extraneous paper-based costs and increasing the integrity of your business.
With a digital document management system comes the ability to store and retrieve files in a secure electronic repository, which prevents misfiling and streamlines workflows associated with any electronic document.
This repository enhances internal and external workflows. Authorized employees are able to access information – whether they’re inside the office or on the road – through a secure, web-based application. Your clients may similarly access their information by providing their own individual login credentials. Employees and clients are easily able to search, view and print documents (by permission) with the ease of a click and within minutes.
This kind of document distribution impacts your office’s bottom line, enhances your relationships with customers and increases your ability to comply with compliance standards in your industry.
Document management software usually means better compliance control for a variety of reasons:
Overall, document management technology helps your firm stay in compliance with the laws, rules and regulations of your compliance standards. It also ensures proper supervision and surveillance of all documents stored within the system.
The benefits of document management software for financial institutions are two-fold: First, you better align business processes and behavior to protect and control client data, and second, you leverage the technology to demonstrate compliant behavior.
Insecure about data security? Gain confidence with zero-compromise digital document control. Learn how in this educational product webinar: