This project was carried out by the Digital Division of Kefron on behalf of an Irish Retail Bank, an existing client of Kefron Filestores & Shred-it.

BACKGROUND:
The Bank’s internal Anti Money Laundering (AML) Division had a requirement to measure hardcopy compliance in relation to their disparately held repositories of both individual and corporate account files. This was to be done by conducting a full audit of all customer account application data held within the aforementioned files. The scale of the operation (in excess of 16,000 customer document files) was such that it required outsourcing to a specialist company such as Kefron. The strong existing partnership with Kefron, coupled with our expertise in this area, allowed us to devise and execute a successful project plan as Stephen Mackey, Senior Digital Consultant, explains “A bespoke solution was always on the cards but the existing level of trust and service confidence that existed between Kefron and the Bank meant that the custodian role and the solution finally applied were not too far removed from each other.”

SOLUTION:
The key component of any plan from the perspective of the Bank was the need to ensure perfect harmony and validated association between hardcopy and softcopy customer application data. In partnership with the bank, Kefron’s solution to the challenge involved a bespoke plan utilising multiple service units within the organisation.

The Bank provided a file level e-list corresponding to individual box contents prepared internally at branch level. in addition to a downloadable version of all compliant accounts associated with the project.

• Crates filled with the relevant documentation were collected by the Kefron Filestores team and delivered to the company’s Digital Division in Park West for solution processing in line with a jointly agreed and thoroughly comprehensive Service document and specification.
• Hardcopy files were rigorously checked against the merged database to ensure ‘account detail’ compliance.
• Non compliant files were returned to the Bank source branch for further investigation while compliant files were catalogued for governance purposes, barcodes for tracking and audit purposes and batched for scanning in a Kefron Filestores archive box and stored in the Kefron warehouse.

Throughout the entirety of the project every compliant record series was bar-coded and catalogued ensuring its whereabouts could be tracked on RSWeb. RSWeb is the on-line order management solution provided free of charge to our customers; essentially, an online facility for retrieving and managing documents that are stored offsite in our Records Centres.  RsWeb.net provides customers with fast, flexible and immediate access and control over their records right when they need it.  RsWeb.net provides real-time access to off-site records via the Internet as well as a powerful and convenient way to manage records as well as place orders for shipping, destruction scanning etc.

• Each compliant file was manually divided up into four documents classes by Kefron’s Preparation Technicians. This would later facilitate not only file level awareness but also increased document control and accessibility.
• Each file was scanned by the Kefron Team as a multiple page, text searchable PDF image file and placed on a hosted website (FileWeb) accessible to nearly forty of the bank’s employees from anywhere at any time. Every document was scanned under the strictest quality control guidelines involving on the fly screen inspection jointly agreed threshold checks in line with baselines defined within the partnership at the implementation stage of the project. The utilisation of Kofax capture software during the scanning process ensured that document images were scanned to the highest degree of accuracy resulting in customer images and associated information being clearly visible by bank staff via FileWeb. Each completed file was reassembled physically to a file level and checked to ensure a match between an indexed record and corresponding image. All images continue to be stored on our hosted website for access by the relevant bank staff with a copy of the database / records download provided on DVD on a biannual basis as a backup solution in line with both Kefron and the bank’s Disaster Recovery policies.

In total Kefron scanned a total of 16,400 customer document files the Bank, on time and within budget. “The success of the solution was no accident. Taking the best that Kefron had to offer in terms of service and combining it with the bank’s needs and knowledge ensured the right information being made available immediately to those who needed it, compliance and control all being achieved in line with the customer’s expectations at all levels” explains Mackey.

BENEFITS:
Measured compliance and up to date audit Reduced AML risk Increased access to information improved internal efficiency and information security.