After receiving less-than-ideal audit findings, a growing regional bank realized they needed a new way to efficiently manage the hundreds of independent systems they use on a daily basis.

Audit findings revealed the bank had multiple employees with access to resources they no longer had permission to access. The bank was managing user access via an inefficient, home-grown solution that lacked a verification system to ensure permissions were indeed removed when requested. Employees spent hundreds of hours, and in turn thousands of dollars, to prepare for the audits, only to be let down when auditors revealed their findings.

With a tight deadline to provide proof that identified issues were resolved, the bank sought out Provision^®, an Identity Management Solution. Provision allows the bank to connect all critical systems, including FIS core systems, into a single-source of record that automates the creation of role-based user accounts and privileges. Once all systems were connected, the bank was able to generate real-time audit reports and documentation for the audit teams. IT can even give auditors direct access to Provision to pull their own detailed reports.

Provision was implemented in 90 days at the lowest total cost of ownership on the market.

Provision takes the manual burden of provisioning accounts and tracking user access off the shoulders of the HR and IT teams, resulting in:

• 5-6x decrease in audit prep time and resources
• Seamless annual audits the next year
• Increase in operational efficiency scores

FIS^®, a global leader in financial services technology, selected First United Bank & Trust as a 2020 FIS Impact Award recipient for its innovative work and collaboration with Kitsap Bank, Country Club Bank, and Bank of Hawaii to create real-time connectors in the FIS Code Connect gateway.

Prior to this initiative, FIS had limited API capabilities that made it difficult for banks to directly connect the IBS Core with an identity management system, like Provision. Not only did IT teams and Help Desk admins have to manually provision accounts and set specific permissions, but they also had to rely on manual exports of reports to track user access and create audit documentation. This process was time consuming and error prone.

Exclamation Labs partnered with FIS directly, and the banks, to develop the real-time connectors that now allow FIS core services to directly communicate with Provision automatically. Provision provides hardened network security by enforcing user permissions and cybersecurity policies across the bank's numerous IT systems. The new connectors allow real-time transactions, tracking every system user while producing audit-ready reports.

Provision IAM has enabled financial institutions nationwide to achieve superior compliance by operationalizing and instantly documenting internal system-wide permissions via connectors across their entire suite of systems.