Modernising Risk Management for a Global Investment Bank

Overview

As part of a wider transformation programme, a global investment bank set out to modernise its risk management system, replacing an in-house legacy platform with an integrated digital solution.

KA2 assessed the proposed platform’s capabilities to support the initial business case, then led the design, implementation and testing of the new solution. Working alongside the bank’s own resources, KA2 consultants and development specialists delivered the project within an ambitious nine-month timeframe.

The Challenge

The bank needed to migrate more than 30 critical processes, involving over 90 business dependencies, from a legacy risk management system.

Each process and function was reviewed and redesigned to improve efficiency, consolidate activities and strengthen risk management across the organisation.

The new platform needed to support several key business outcomes:

• Automate risk control reviews and attestations, including validation of data held within the Configuration Management Database (CMDB).
• Transfer ownership of risk processes from IT to business and product stakeholders.
• Centralise risk policies, compliance processes and supporting documentation to meet regulatory and audit obligations.
• Manage Operational Impact Assessments for new business services, including their potential impact on production and business continuity.
• Capture data classifications and define risk tolerances for different operational services.
• Automate Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability (CIA) assessments for services and third-party providers.
• Centralise disaster recovery and failover plans.
• Integrate service catalogue and service request processes with the new risk management workflows.
• Automate role-based access control processes.
• Integrate internal communications and notifications to support business continuity planning and incident alerting.
• Automate the commissioning and decommissioning of IT services and hardware assets, maintaining accurate CMDB data and coordinating tasks across support teams.

The challenge was to bring these interdependent requirements together in a single, scalable solution while maintaining alignment with the bank’s wider technology and operational objectives.

The Solution

KA2 was initially engaged to support the bank’s enterprise platform across IT service management, IT asset management and IT operations management.

Drawing on its understanding of the bank’s existing environment and expertise in risk management, integrations and workflow automation, KA2 extended this capability to deliver the replacement risk platform.

Using the KA2 Smarter Framework and an agile delivery approach, the team planned and delivered functionality through structured development sprints.

The solution prioritised standard, out-of-the-box functionality and avoided unnecessary customisation. This helped maintain a single source of data, reduce complexity and support a more sustainable operating model.

Business requirements were captured through workshops and discovery sessions. KA2’s domain specialists translated these requirements into a working solution, with development stories documented to guide delivery.

Stakeholders remained involved throughout the project through regular demonstrations and review sessions. Training was also provided to the teams responsible for operating the new processes.

The implementation brought together workflow automation, integrations, service portals, the CMDB and its supporting data model to create a more connected approach to risk management.

The Benefits

The project moved the bank from a siloed legacy risk platform with heavily manual processes to a digital, automated solution that supported its cloud-first strategy and strengthened its risk management capabilities.

Key outcomes included:

• Reduced costs: Automated time-consuming manual processes across risk management and compliance, delivering annual cost savings.
• Improved visibility and reporting: Introduced common datasets, continuous monitoring, real-time reporting and enhanced dashboards to support risk controls, audit requirements and decision-making.
• Connected processes and data: Consolidated dependencies and established common datasets across associated services, providing a more consistent view of risk and compliance.
• Stronger risk ownership: Supported the transfer of risk process ownership from IT to business and product stakeholders.
• Improved user experience: Delivered a more accessible interface and integrated workflows for more than 5,000 users.
• A scalable operating model: Connected risk management functionality with existing tools and services to support a cohesive, cost-effective approach.
• Stronger governance and compliance: Embedded risk management and compliance into everyday workflows, supporting ongoing monitoring, informed business decisions and reduced regulatory exposure.

The new solution provided the bank with a stronger foundation for enterprise risk management, improved operational efficiency and greater oversight across its services, helping it manage risk more consistently while supporting its wider technology transformation.