The bank offers financial products and services to a select client base, predominantly in South Africa and the UK. Investec strives to cater to the changing needs of its clients, who increasingly seek out flexible, digital-first experiences. As a result, modernization through technology has been a key strategic focus for the business for a number of years.

Recognizing the crucial need to provide exceptional service at every touch point, including when problems arise, Investec sought a solution that would enable it to optimise its queries and investigations handling.

valantic FSA’s FinCase for Investigations application was selected by Investec in 2019 as part of its ongoing digital transformation, with the businesses quickly forming an effective partnership.

FinCase is a multi-tenant case management application that collects all relevant information for an investigation and maintains a centralized ‘case-file’, recording the evolution of an investigation. It integrates all stakeholders (e.g. client management, electronic channels, fraud, AML, sanctions, booking and settlement) tightly into the investigation process.

The software solution offers the highest level of integration with internal bank applications and external payment networks such as SWIFT. It also provides out-of-the-box compliance with major payment standards such as SWIFT (MT and CBPR+), Target2, SEPA, ISO20022, and selected European Instant Payment schemes, while being easily extensible to other payments schemes too.

FinCase has been shown to reduce investigation time and processing cost by 30-50% as well as minimise settlement risk, thanks to dramatically shortened investigation elapsed time.

Simon Wilson, managing director of Payments Automation at valantic FSA, commented: “In a highly commoditized market such as payments, finding the right technology partners is key to reducing costs, increasing efficiencies, and maintaining an excellent reputation.

“It quickly became clear that Investec shares our mission to deliver first class services to customers, and we have been able to forge a strong working relationship that has resulted in the successful implementation and ongoing usage of FinCase. We’re looking forward to continuing to support Investec on its digital transformation journey as its customers’ requirements evolve.”