Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services expands with new updates

Microsoft’s recent expansion of Cloud Financial Services features should help the 41.1 percent of financial service respondents to an IDC survey deliver digital services faster while they accelerate their shift to the cloud.

As part of Microsoft’s Cloud Financial Services feature expansion, the platform will now offer a Compliance Program for Microsoft Cloud that includes the following:

• Ask an Expert: Directly engage with Microsoft’s subject matter experts to address top-of-mind compliance concerns as well as accelerate regulatory assessment and approval cycles.
• Risk and Control Mapping: Get support from Microsoft with cloud risk assessments to help you meet your due diligence needs.
• Compliance Community: Learn about the latest regulatory compliance developments directly from Microsoft experts, industry peers, and thought leaders via ongoing virtual sessions, summits, and webcasts.
• Proactive Risk Assurance: Receive proactive communication from Microsoft’s experts on external audit results, ongoing updates of Microsoft’s cloud estate, and changing regulatory compliance requirements.

In addition, a new banking customer agreement feature that offers customers self-scheduling of meetings on preferred channels called Intelligent Appointments is out of preview and generally available to customers. With Intelligent Appointments generally available to customers it can be paired with Virtual Appointments which is used in Microsoft Teams to send text reminders to join custom branded virtual appointments through mobile devices along with a few other admin scheduling tools to manage on-demand virtual appointments.

Microsoft is also putting a few newer features into preview (US and UK availability) that should help financial institutes leverage common data models, extract insights, derive new business models, and deliver differentiated customer experiences such as:

• Onboarding application (retail banking and other verticals): Delivers a flexible and intelligent product onboarding experience with automated document workflows enriched by AI analysis to assist the document verification process.
• Unified client profile (wealth management): Helps deepen client relationships with meaningful advice, providing relationship managers with a good understanding of a client’s financial status, investment portfolios, financial goals, important life moments, and other personal attributes.
• Property and casualty insurance data model (insurance):  A dedicated property and casualty insurance data model captures new attributes including policy and coverage information, claims, and insurance providers and producers.
• Wealth management data model (wealth management): An extension to the banking data model that captures new attributes including financial goals and investment instruments specific to wealth management.
• Small business data model extension (retail banking SMB): Extends the data model foundation of Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services to represent individuals and allows linking small businesses to individual financial holdings.

Lastly, Microsoft’s Cloud Financial Services has also expanded its partner ecosystem to provide customers with systems integration (SIs) from Accenture/Avanade and PWC as well as independent software vendors (ISVs) ArganoArbela, ASC, Bambu, BioCatch, Mambu, Thought Machine and Wealth Dynamix.