KC Risk AG

KC Risk AG sees itself as a reliable partner for cooperative banks in the areas of treasury, overall bank management, and risk management. The company, based in Nuremberg, is a Depot-A specialist that operates as an outsourcing service provider for cooperative banks in the fields of interest rate book management and Depot-A management.

To meet customer requirements, the company has been working with MR.KNOW – BPM (formerly BPM inspire) since 2015. With the new process workflows, securities trading has been digitalized and process security has been increased.

Challenge: Replacing paper forms with a digital system

Before the introduction of the new system, trading transactions were handled using Word forms and manually entered into the system. To optimize the process, KC Risk AG was looking for a system that would allow work in the browser as well as the creation of forms and process workflows. Depending on the processing status, the order was to be passed on to the next department to carry out further steps.

The company tested many systems and ultimately decided on MR.KNOW – BPM. The reason for this decision was the wide range of possibilities for creating extensions independently and the system’s openness for future requirements. In addition, the system had to be able to run locally and allow PDF output of specific data as well as role- and rights-based access control. Since MR.KNOW – BPM met all the desired requirements, implementation of the trading process could soon begin.

Process automation in securities trading

The financial service provider works with banks that outsource their securities trading to KC Risk. In this process, an employee of KC Risk AG proposes buying a security or carrying out a specific measure and sends this proposal to the bank for approval. The bank approves the proposal, which leads to orders in the system that must be processed by the KC Risk AG team. Before this process was automated, orders were handled by email or on paper.

The new MR.KNOW – BPM system now enables KC Risk AG to handle the banks’ trading transactions more efficiently and securely. With the process mapping of the securities trading process according to the BPMN 2.0 standard, all orders can be collected and processed in a single order folder, which has led to a significant increase in process security. Every single process step is verifiable and traceable. This is particularly important in the financial sector to identify incorrect entries and potential sources of error.

The ongoing reporting obligation to BaFin, which has required financial service providers since 2019 to report their securities transactions, has also been made easier by MR.KNOW. Since all data records are standardized and stored in databases, reporting can be carried out easily.

Further advantages over the old solution

Compared to the previous solution, the new system provides a faster and more comprehensive overview, which has made communication across distances easier, especially in times of remote work. Because data can be imported and exported, reference data for certain securities can already be preloaded, avoiding duplicate entries. By connecting to an underlying MySQL database, certain customer-specific criteria can be predefined in the system, resulting in time savings. Internally, information that might otherwise be lost — such as specific instructions given by a colleague or customer — can also be documented. This information is recorded directly in the system. The transfer of existing data to the next department has also been simplified, as everything previously had to be filled out manually. Overall, these improvements have led to a time saving of about 30%.

In summary, the digitalization of securities trading at KC Risk AG is a good example of successful digital transformation in the financial sector. Through the new process workflow, up to 5 billion euros in volume are now traded each year, divided into more than 3,000 subprocesses. All this is achieved with increased process security and few manual steps, resulting in greater efficiency and productivity. The ability to develop individual solutions without programming and to make the system expandable has helped the company remain capable of meeting customer requirements in the future.