Compliance Automation Engine
A single rules engine now executes first-line compliance checks across seven regulatory regimes as the work happens, generating audit evidence as a byproduct instead of a weekend reconstruction.
The challenge
A regulated financial services firm ran first-line compliance as seven parallel, manual processes:
- Checks for KYC/AML, sanctions screening, best execution, suitability, trade surveillance, record-keeping, and complaints handling ran as seven separate manual processes
- Evidence for auditors was reconstructed after the fact from emails, screenshots, and shared drives
- 85 first-line analysts spent a meaningful share of each week assembling proof of work already done, not doing new checks
- Regulatory change meant updating seven checklists in seven places, often inconsistently
- Examiners regularly asked for evidence the firm couldn't produce quickly, extending exam timelines
How it works
Compliance checks that execute themselves and leave a trail
Rather than automate each regime separately, one workflow model was built to cover all seven:
- 01
Mapped all seven regulatory regimes to a common workflow model: trigger, check, evidence, escalation
- 02
Built a rules engine that executes deterministic checks — sanctions screening, suitability thresholds, record-keeping timestamps — automatically at the point of work
- 03
Routed the 32% of judgment-heavy exceptions that can't be machine-decided to analysts with evidence pre-assembled
- 04
Captured evidence as a byproduct of the workflow running, not as a separate retrospective step
- 05
Piloted on two regimes — sanctions screening and record-keeping — before extending to all seven
- 06
Gave examiners direct, read-only access to the evidence trail instead of point-in-time evidence pulls
What we built
Key capabilities
One engine, seven regimes
KYC/AML, sanctions, best execution, suitability, surveillance, record-keeping, and complaints all run through a single rules engine.
Evidence as a byproduct
Proof of work is generated as the workflow executes — not reconstructed later from emails and screenshots.
Exceptions routed, not lost
The 32% of checks that need judgment reach analysts with the evidence already assembled.
Examiner-ready, always
A live, read-only evidence trail replaces the scramble to produce a point-in-time pull.
Before vs after
What changed in first-line compliance
- Workflows machine-executed
- 0% → 68%
- Evidence collection
- Retrospective, manual → Generated in real time
- Regimes on one engine
- 0 → 7
- Analyst hours/month on evidence
- 2,200 → ~700
- Exam evidence requests
- Days to fulfill → Minutes
Business impact
What it changed
68% of workflows now self-execute
Deterministic checks across all seven regimes run without manual intervention, from trigger to logged evidence.
2,200 analyst-hours reclaimed monthly
Time previously spent reconstructing evidence now goes to the 32% of exceptions that genuinely need a human judgment call.
Exams move faster
Examiners work from a live evidence trail instead of waiting on a reconstructed, point-in-time pull.
Technology stack
“Compliance stopped being paperwork done after the fact and became a property of the workflow itself — proof generated by the work, not chased down afterward.”
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