Our regulatory experts are already regarded as market leaders. But this project was also about delivering specialism at speed.
The challenge
New regulation rarely rewards a rapid response. The introduction of Basel III Standardised Approach to Counterparty Credit Risk – SA-CCR for short – provided an opportunity to achieve both capital efficiency and competitive advantage by taking proactive action.
Our tier 1 investment bank client had identified the SA-CCR opportunity but also knew speed was of the essence. They required a high-performance team, comfortable operating at pace in a structured manner, who not only understood the regulatory landscape but who could also gather business requirements and conduct testing in advance of the implementation.
Our approach
The team we assembled on behalf of our client included highly experienced and highly capable regulatory experts and business analysts as well as data analysts and testing practitioners.
Our team immediately took ownership of the client’s SA-CCR financial reporting. We operated with minimum impact upon the client’s day-to-day activities while at the same time freeing up their personnel and releasing vital resources.
We achieved BRD sign-off within one month due to our team’s willingness and ability to integrate and conduct effective analysis at speed. They defined a testing strategy, ensured compliance and managed the ongoing testing, creating test plans and cases as well as owning elements of test execution.
What happened
A joint approach between CRO and CFO at programme level had never been achieved before. Our impact was as unique as it was immediate.
By defining a critical path and by gaining agreement of an engagement model with the CRO, we enabled the reporting workstream to operate at pace.
Our ability to quickly establish realistic and syndicated planning and analysis created confidence in both the process and ourselves. This in turn mitigated limited stakeholder availability which could otherwise have caused delays.
Better still, the credibility our team gained led directly to the client inviting us to own the front to back testing phase.
Note: This case study was first published by Catalyst prior to the Sionic merger
