IDC launches an Executive Brief based on a recent in-depth analysis to assess the priorities and challenges faced by banks in Africa with regards to their views and strategies related to changing business dynamics and Best Practices in the banking sector.

Overview

Supervisory authorities across key financial centres in Africa continue to push forward with reform of the financial services sector in an effort to bring regulatory policy in line with broad global standards. The consequence of this is that institutions operating in these centres are faced with the absolute imperative of complying with dramatically enhanced regulatory controls and scrutiny. Whether these be tighter controls around fraud and AML or a more specific focus on risk and capital management, it is clear that financial institutions will be forced to become much more sophisticated in their understanding and execution of Governance, Risk and Compliance strategies.

At the same time as this regulatory upheaval is taking place, business dynamics are also changing. Consolidation continues apace in the banking sector - supplemented by greater interest and involvement from foreign institutions, whilst a more diverse range of financial products is allowing for more innovative capital markets participation. With the advent and gradual proliferation of electronic trading across the region, so the business environment is becoming ever more complex and competitive.

Faced with such pressing challenges, financial institutions in Africa must urgently address the deficiencies of their current process and systems architecture to ensure that they can deliver a level of operational efficiency that engenders both robust regulatory compliance and competitive advantage. To achieve this, they must look to improve standards in line with global best practices. Based on the specific and most pressing challenges faced in the Africa region, this should certainly include some, if not all of the following:

• Fostering an integrated, rules-based enterprise-wide Fraud and AML strategy that delivers transparency across all lines of business and client transactions; 
• Delivering on-demand, near real-time risk analysis and limit management to the Front Office trading desk supported by an integrated view of enterprise risk management in the Middle Office; 
• Introducing greater automation into the post-trade processing environment to reduce operational risk and enhance efficiency in line with volume growth.

Why Attend?

How Adopting Global Best Practices Can Help Financial Institutions Prosper In The ‘New Normal’ In Africa
Vastly increased regulatory scrutiny and a rapid modernisation of the business landscape are changing the way in which African financial institutions do business today. IDC Financial Insights and Misys invite you to join us to hear how financial institutions can go beyond mere survival to prosper in this rapidly evolving climate. By delivering robust compliance alongside operational excellence and adopting best practice global standards, institutions can position themselves at the forefront of the transition from developing to developed financial markets. Amongst the areas discussed will be:

• Coping with the enhanced regulatory burden: What strategies can be adopted to engender confidence in the compliance regime? 
• Fraud and AML: How an integrated, rules-based approach can inject transparency across the full breadth counterparty transactions; 
• Making Risk Management a Differentiator: How can risk and risk analytics be positioned to deliver a competitive advantage to trading operations? 
• Post-Trade Efficiency: Focusing on increasing post-trade automation to reduce the level of inherent operational risk in the environment;