In a time when M&A data has become more complex and plentiful than ever before, the need for confidentiality is no longer optional. Simply put, when building relationships and navigating transactions, investment bankers must have best-in-class security measures in place to protect their data.
In order to meet increasing client demands, investment banks need to ensure that privately held company data and other information remains safe. Most firms employ strict protocols and procedures to protect data, but with an increasingly complex internal technology ecosystem, many remain at risk for data loss, theft, and fraud.
How can investment banks continue to build upon the security measures already in place to provide peace of mind to their clients? In this article, we’ll discuss some of the best practices large investment banking firms follow to strengthen their data security and compliance.
Leverage smart permissions and user groups to guard data against human error
Within your investment banking firm, it’s likely that the need for access to information will differ greatly among the individual roles, responsibilities, relationships, and divisions. Although many traditional CRM platforms don’t let you tailor your data management to individuals, purpose-built solutions like Intapp DealCloud are crafted with these complicated use-cases and novel scenarios in mind.
Within a platform like DealCloud, permissions limit a user’s — or group of users’ — access to data to help protect data integrity and streamline information-sharing processes. Site administrators and other technology administrators like CIOs, CTOs, and IT managers can use permission-configuration tools to control who can edit, create, view, or pull reports that contain specific data.
Investment banks, specifically, find permissions helpful when managing compliance, approval, and diligence measures when executing on deals and moving transactions through the pipeline. By creating limits on users’ ability to change, edit, or access the Compliance Status field, for example, investment bankers can find comfort in knowing that only qualified individuals can alter the data and provide relevant updates to their team and clients. Administrators can still provide lower-level employees with view-only permissions, allowing firmwide transparency without risking unauthorized edits.
House data in one safe, secure place
Building and maintaining a single source of truth for your firm lets you manage and guard your information within one secure solution. This approach provides a meaningful alternative to maintaining multiple systems with separate functions and logins, which heightens the potential for security breaches. You can customize DealCloud to serve the needs of all types of users within your investment banking firm. You can build unique approval processes, personalized dashboards, and workflow tracking while also providing visibility into relevant updates in order to maintain firmwide transparency. You’ll simplify management of systems and individuals while also upholding security.
Housing your data in a single unified system like DealCloud also lets you create an audit trail in case users access data improperly. Maintaining visibility into which users have access to key data and when they engaged with it gives your firm the ability to quickly identify and resolve data-management abuses. Although many CRM platforms offer threat detection software, it’s vital to ensure your solution includes the latest technology in order to uphold data safety and present as a strong, security-minded presence to your clients.
Strengthen your investment bank’s firmwide security measures
It’s highly important that investment banking firms continue to strengthen their security measures, both to provide clients peace of mind and to ensure the safety of their data. A pipeline management solution like DealCloud can serve as both a single source of truth for your data as well as a form of extended security protection.
To learn more about how Intapp DealCloud bolsters security for investment banking firms, schedule a demo.