5 Main Benefits of User Provisioning in Fincrime Prevention

Imagine if all the information were available to every employee within the organisation. All it would take is for a single person to get an entry-level job in a company like Coca-Cola or KFC to steal their product recipe. Just imagine this disaster.

User provisioning is a system used in virtually every organisation. People at the top and bottom don’t have access to the same information. No, this is not classist or elitist; it’s just common sense.

People with greater responsibility and more stake in the organisation are likely to be trustworthy. That’s all there is to it.

This is why a process known as user provisioning exists. It’s a process by which people get an access to features and information based on their position in the organisation. It’s an access system on a need-to-know basis. Here are the top five benefits of this system in the field of financial fraud prevention.

Simpler onboarding and offboarding

Getting new people in your organisation is a lot of work. This is mostly the case because of the onboarding process. When introducing people into your organisation, you also give them access to your working spaces. These spaces often contain a lot of sensitive information.

With user provisioning, you can start them out with a limited amount of information and then increase the amount of information they get as they advance in your organisation. You can unlock the access they need when they’re in a position where they cannot do their job without it.

By doing this systemically, you can avoid the feeling that you distrust them. This way, you’ll stay protected while still cultivating a culture of belonging as early as the onboarding stage.

Also, when they leave your organisation, it will be much easier to restrict their access to all this data. This way, you’re kept safe and protected. The same goes for the information of your users (which is a point that can ruin your reputation).

Increasing the efficiency of your AML methods

Money laundering is a serious problem, so you need all the tools available to combat it as a financial organisation. User provisioning is one of the most effective methods of AML in the finance industry.

Not every employee poses the same amount of risk. With the help of user provisioning, you can give a certain level of control and access based on the risk the employee in question represents.

One of the most common motivations for money laundering is the idea that you’ll get away with it. This is the easiest to achieve if you can access all aspects of financial transactions. With user provisioning, this will never be the case.

Lastly, with a user provisioning system, every activity will leave a digital footprint. By following it its route, it will be much easier to diagnose the problem and find the culprits.

Reducing the likelihood of human error

Mistakes can happen to anyone. However, errors are more likely to occur if a person that’s not trained to handle the task gets access to the tools and documents related to it. These things can happen accidentally, without intention, and data volumes get corrupted or lost.

By making user provisioning systemic, you will drastically minimise this likelihood. It’s also worth pointing out that granting and revoking access must be done automatically. This, too, is a form of minimising the risk of human error.

Imagine firing someone because you’ve caught them mishandling corporate funds and not revoking their access immediately. Imagine firing someone, which makes them vengeful, and forgetting to restrict their access afterwards. If both scenarios sound genuinely terrifying, you need automatic user provisioning immediately.

Improving your visibility

It’s easier to keep an eye out on fewer people. This is just common sense. So, by assigning a small number of people to each task and giving them access to the relevant information, you’ll have an easier job monitoring what everyone’s doing.

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This way, you’ll also avoid the likelihood of accusing someone unjustly of a fraud they didn’t commit. With fewer people to keep an eye on, you have fewer possible culprits, and your margin of error is a lot smaller.

This also gives you a chance to react proactively or, at the very least, have a better reaction time to a breach.

Keeping it simple

Sometimes, financial fraud doesn’t happen intentionally. When you give people too many options, provide them with access to too many platforms, and give them more tools than they can handle, problems are bound to occur.

In a way, by simplifying things, by limiting access, you will directly increase productivity. On the one hand, you give them all you need to do their job. At the same time, you limit the number of distractions.

Supplementary reading: How The Most Productive People Avoid Digital Distractions

This is closely tied to the psychological phenomenon known as the paradox of choice. By limiting this access, you can easily keep your team more focused.

User provisioning reduces risks and errors while increasing productivity

Access to information is always going to be a sensitive topic. The most important thing about it is that the decisions must be executed quickly, and the process must be fair and unbiased. All of this can be achieved with a sound user provisioning system. When done right, it can reduce the risks, minimise the margin of error, and increase the productivity of your staff.

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