When we think of Salesforce, we immediately think of sales, marketing and account management use cases. It is after all, the world-leading Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, employed by thousands of businesses globally and valued at well over $100bn.

Founded in 1999, Salesforce has grown into an uber powerful platform that can work cross functionally for almost any type of business.

In 2005, Salesforce launched the AppExchange, which offered users access to applications developed by third parties. This was a game-changer for both users and developers who wanted to add value and bring the power of integration to a platform where so many people manage their all-important customer and prospect data.

The banking and financial services sector is becoming increasingly reliant on Salesforce

According to Statista, in 2022 the breakdown of Salesforce customers by industry is as follows:

It’s worth noting that nearly 10% of Salesforce’s customer base now comes from the banking and financial services sector.

Furthermore, as banks and financial institutions have undergone various stages digital transformation in recent years, many will have adopted a new CRM to act as a backbone for their customer lifecycle management system.

It’s within this lifecycle that the compliance function comes into operation, along with a range of challenges.

The common challenges faced by operations and compliance teams

Implementing a CRM brings its own challenges across operations and compliance departments. Salesforce is a powerful platform, but it also brings with it an ongoing cost that can quickly escalate.

Some of the common challenges we hear from customers and prospects include:

• Pressure to achieve a ‘single view/single source of truth’ in Salesforce
• The need to screen new customers and third parties faster and more effectively
• Failed internal build projects as developers struggle with the Salesforce API
• How to maximise the capabilities of the CRM to screen new customers without the need for an additional, disconnected platform
• Pressure from Salesforce to add more user licences across an organisation

Extending the use of Salesforce for KYC

Thanks to the advent of the AppExchange, it is now possible to add a myriad of functionality to customer data, without having to undertake painful exports or ending up with silos of data in different locations.

Many businesses will utilise Salesforce as part of their customer onboarding or screening process, with various KYC or AML sub-processes involved along the way.

By bringing advanced screening technology into Salesforce via the AppExchange, companies can now benefit from the following:

• Huge efficiency gains by being able to automatically screen leads and customers directly in Salesforce
• Reduce false positive matches by up to 95% using a proprietary 3D risk-based approach
• Access to world leading Refinitiv or Dow Jones sanctions, PEP, and watchlist data
• Tech stack consolidation by having fewer standalone systems
• Avoid data silos and increase collaborative working with other company departments
• Improved AML risk governance through full audit capture and comprehensive MI reporting
• Achieving the ‘single customer view’

Bringing the risk-based approach directly into Salesforce

RiskScreen have developed a unique 3D risk-based approach which has been ‘baked-in’ to all our solutions, including our Salesforce AML screening app.

By using this proprietary approach, it is possible to reduce false positives by as much as 95%, with the process working as follows:

1. Initial risk-based screening against the latest data from Refinitiv or Dow Jones. With RiskScreen, parameters are automatically adjusted according to a predetermined risk scoring, enabling you to effectively manage different risk levels.
2. The application of client risk-based metadata filtering options, including date of birth and country, to dramatically reduce false positives.
3. RiskScreen’s smart-filtering function automatically disapplies filter settings for any potential high-risk matches. Knowing that you’ll always see a potential sanctions hit enables you to tighten search and filter rules without missing important results.

If your organisation is utilising Salesforce in a compliance capacity, take a look at how RiskScreen has developed a fully integrated AML screening app, which can instantly reduce friction by automatically screening your leads and customers in Salesforce.