Invoke Launches a CRS/AEoI Reporting Solution to Add to its Tax and Regulatory Software Suite
A European leader in financial, tax and regulatory reporting for the banking and insurance sectors, Invoke is expanding its software range to meet CRS/AEoI cross-country tax reporting requirements.
As part of the global fight against tax evasion, the G20 and OECD program for the exchange of tax payers’ financial information (AEoI) requires financial institutions to transmit information to their national tax authorities about the accounts of their clients whose tax residence is established in one of the 87 signatory countries.
Sometimes referred to as “Global FATCA” due to its similarity to FATCA reporting already implemented by the IRS in the United States, reporting according to the CRS/AEoI (“Common Reporting Standard” for “Automatic Exchange of Information”) is expected by tax authorities in the first half of 2017 for financial institutions in the 54 early adopter countries, of which the UK, Ireland and France are members, and in 2018 for the remaining signatory countries.
To enable customers to respond quickly and regularly to these requirements, Invoke has extended its internationally acclaimed “Invoke Regulatory*” product line to CRS/AEoI tax reporting.
A standard package for quick implementation
“In view of the short timeframe our customers are facing in managing all of the new CRS / AEoI reporting requirements, we have made every effort to provide them with a service that is both efficient and sustainable: a complete, fully-maintained standard configuration for fast implementation within a comprehensive, reliable and highly scalable strategic solution,” explains Antoine Bourdais, Director of the Banking and Insurance Division at Invoke.
Based on the Invoke Regulatory software platform, already tried and trusted in nearly 30 countries to meet European and domestic regulatory requirements in the banking and insurance sectors, and already in production for FATCA reporting, Invoke’s CRS/AEoI solution manages production of FATCA and CRS/AEoI reports from within a single solution.
The standard multi-jurisdiction “Premium” configuration is suitable for both solo entities and international group structures. It includes data input formats, the OECD CRS data model, national specificities of the multiple countries concerned, exhaustive controls (data integrity checks, business controls, XML technical checks), a customizable standard workflow (in line with the four eyes principle), pre-configured user profiles, as well as a large number of dashboards for efficient management and analysis. Invoke maintains and guarantees all of these features with every regulatory change.
Minimal impact in the event of regulatory changes
Full maintenance of the complete standard configuration (Premium kit), coupled with an optimized application architecture, guarantees Invoke unrivaled lead times every time the regulations change.
“We have replicated the approach that has already made us successful with regulatory reporting among our customers. Thanks to a declarative module separate from the core of the application, the impact in the event of changes to the technical filing rules is considerably reduced since no update to the main platform is required. In addition to the drastic reduction in the time required for us to deliver updates, this also allows our customers’ IT teams to make significant savings,” explained Antoine Bourdais.
An easy-to-use, business-oriented solution
Invoke Regulatory stands out with its flagship component: a business spreadsheet application integrated into the core of the solution. Preferred over any other tool by business end-users, a spreadsheet application provides them with a familiar working environment. The Invoke built-in spreadsheet component allows them to view data and validation results, and to browse accross dashboards. Data can also be adjusted in the spreadsheet interface by manually entering data or importing Excel® files.
The flexibility of the input methods allows for an “à la carte” data collection that adapts to each financial institution’s context: the data input method can combine automated imports via the standard import service, Excel® file imports and manual inputs by authorized users via the built-in spreadsheet.
The collaborative solution allows for fine-tuned user rights management, as well as a multi-level validation workflow
(four eyes principle), a complete audit trail and an elaborate track change feature with comment management.
The tax compliance process is made easier by a smart engine that automatically manages initial submissions, feedback and the correction process (automatic assignment of message types to be sent, management of technical IDs, etc.). The production of returns in the required final XML format is triggered based on events defined in the workflow configuration.
A versioning system archives the returns and successive configuration versions for each change in the regulations.
A highly scalable strategic solution
The standard data model and package configuration can be extended and customized (adding specific input formats, indicators, dimensions for analysis, etc.), allowing financial institutions to create their own views for analysis, custom KPIs and dashboards.
The application’s rich features also make it possible to industrialize work on data upstream of reporting thanks to
customized data quality scenarios (client identification and classification, data filtering, sampling…).
* Invoke Regulatory was named « Best Data Solution » at the InsuranceERM Awards 2016.
Invoke Regulatory was awarded the « Best Regulatory Reporting Software » award at the Insurance Risk Awards 2014.
