Clicks to Compliance: Innovating Systems for Financial Firms

The Challenge

David, a compliance officer at a Fortune 500 financial firm, had an overwhelming task—managing gift and entertainment disclosures for hundreds of clients while ensuring compliance with FINRA and SEC regulations.

The system he used was slow and cumbersome:

• He manually calculated costs per client.
• He juggled multiple screens.
• He struggled with inconsistent data points, causing frustrating delays.

What should have been a simple task often took 10 minutes per entry, adding up to hours of inefficiency every week.

The Design Approach

As the Lead UX Designer, I set out to streamline this complex workflow while maintaining strict regulatory compliance. Using a user-centered design approach, I collaborated closely with engineers and product managers to ensure our solution was both intuitive and technically feasible.

Key UX Principles and Decisions

Simplifying the User Journey

• Mapped out David's workflow to identify pain points and redundant steps.
• Reduced the number of clicks required by consolidating actions into a single screen.
• Worked with the engineers to optimize API calls, and ensure different roles had appropriate access.
• Introduced progressive disclosure—hiding less critical data behind expandable sections to keep the interface clean.

The Outcome

The new enhancement quickly demonstrated its value, resulting in:

• Improved Data Entry: David reported a 90% reduction in entry time compared to current systems allowing more time spent on client service and other critical tasks.
• Better Performance and Responsiveness: Improved responsiveness due to enhanced API calls.
• Intuitive Role Management: Ensuring the right users had the right level of access.
• User-Friendly Interface: Reduced cognitive load, allowing users to interact with the data more effectively through the use of common Design System components.

The new design enabled gift and entertainment reporting to be completed on a single screen with just a few clicks. It automatically calculates the cost per client for submissions made on behalf of multiple advisors, stores this information in the client’s profile, and aggregates it throughout the year.