Brokerprove (Compliance made easy)
“Brokerprove” =”Compliance made easy”
Today Brokers are faced with many new and changing regulatory requirements following the global and local Irish financial crisis. It is understandable from a societal perspective that creating trust and confidence in our financial systems and services is essential and that business and consumers alike are willing to go back into the market for whatever services they need. That said the demands on Brokers & Advisors are ever increasing as regards paperwork, records ,processing information and communications with clients, providers and the regulators.
The sources of regulation include legislation such as the eCommerce Act 2000, the Financial Regulator & the Data Protection Commissioner. The Brokers motivation is to provide the best possible product and services to their customers in an efficient, effective and professional manner. By having these objectives many of the regulatory requirements will be met. Customers trust us with very personally sensitive data and depend on our expertise to recommend product and services that meet their unique requirements. We know and understand the consequences of failing to meet their needs , which ultimately may see the loss of the customer and revenues but also the risk of the loss of license to practice should the regulator determine you are non-compliant.
So how can Brokerprove help achieve compliance. In the first instance you must have the desire and motivation to be compliant, no software solution will completely solve making you compliant without these traits and a strong awareness and commitment by you and your team to best practices and compliance. Let us look at the key areas of compliance and how Brokerprove uniquely addresses each area:-
- Education & Competence:- Because Brokerprove was designed by Brokers for Brokers, its structure and the related product training , re enforces key competence areas as they relate to each of the Regulatory areas in the Digital world.
- Business Processes:– The unique file structure for document and file management is pre-configured within Brokerprove to enable you follow your process flow, in addition there is only one instance of Brokerprove for your business, that all professionals and Back Office staff use, so everyone is using the same, system, process and information.
- Documents:– Brokerprove file structure is designed and pre populated with all the required document types , so simple drop down menus allow the storage and retrieval in a manner that is both effective and efficient for each Client, Case or Provider. A unique automated file naming system ensures consistency in the naming of all documents regardless of source whether it’s a new or edited word document template, a scanned document and e-mail received. Powerful search features are built into the product and in addition there is a unique missing compliance document search feature, which will identify any potential process or compliance exposure you may have at the touch of a button.
- Security & Data Protection:– Brokerprove has integrated Digiprove’s patented technology which assures the provenance, integrity and authenticity for every document at every stage of the process. No other solution can make this claim. At any time, any stakeholder can access on or off-line and verify any document or file and confirm “Trust”. Any tampering whether accidental or malicious will be evident. Only authorised staff can access Brokerprove documents. The remote access and cloud storage uses industry strength security and encryption, and automatic back up of this data adds an additional layer of protection and resilience. Ultimately is the core Digiprove process and technology that ensures compliance.
- Records:– As a broker you’re required to keep a copy of all of your clients’ documentation for 6 years after a case closes. The more cases you deal with, the more clients you have; the more space you’ll lose to old case files. According to the Electronic Commerce Act 2000, documents that are held for compliance reasons can be held digitally. The Act states that information can be held digitally ‘if there exists a reliable assurance as to the integrity of the information from the time when it was first generated in its final form’. This requirement has been preventing brokers, and other regulated industries, from using digital originals because ‘reliable assurances’ of digital document integrity has been difficult to come by. Digital documents are too easy to edit, too easy to falsify in terms of time and date created.
So how do you deal with this problem? For most brokers it means their offices are taken over by filing cabinets and storage boxes. Or they pay to lease storage space. A constant cost that only ever goes up.
But now there are ways to reliably verify the integrity of digital documents. With Digiprove, an integrated service included within the Brokerprove system, all of your documents are authenticated in a secure third party location. Digiprove allows you to create irrefutable proof of where, when and who created any digital document. As well as definitive proof of when the document was edited. As soon as you complete a document and save it within Brokerprove, it’s automatically verified through Digiprove.
With this verification and the fact that Brokerprove also creates a backup copy of the document, you fulfil your regulatory requirements without the need for the paper original. For brokers, that means an immediate cut in costs for paper records and a more efficient business.