Reduction of Compliance Risks
Reduce FSP compliance risks by 30% with better tracking, audit trails, and transparency.
Custom Compliance Framework
OUTLINE
Key Details
Status
Shipped-GA
Type
Feature Enhancement
My Role
Design Lead
Prod-Dev Process
Agile (2 weeks sprints | 3-4 sprint deployment)
Deliverables
Exploratory concepts, High-fidelity prototypes, Interaction guide for hand-off
Overview
Within the EMTECH compliance management product, the “Custom Framework” feature enables financial
services providers
(FSPs) to define and manage compliance frameworks tailored to specific regulatory and international
certification
standards. With enough flexibility to support several compliance frameworks and allow FSPs track and
maintain compliance
with regulatory requirements, the custom framework feature provides a clear audit trail of any
updates and
modifications.
Designs for the first version of custom framework wrapped up in late fall 2024. Dev work began late
November 2024 with
ongoing enhancements until its public release in the first half of 2025.
Key Metrics and Impact
While external data on the customer reception was not reported at the time of writing this case study, there were several wins for the project internally:
- - Demoed at our 1st public release event of the year
- - Delivered on all requirements expressed by key customers
What is Custom Framework?
The Custom Framework feature lets Financial Service Providers (FSPs) create and manage compliance frameworks that meet specific regulatory and certification standards. It is flexible enough to support different frameworks, helping FSPs stay compliant with regulations and certifications while keeping a clear record of any changes. Since compliance rules differ across industries and regions, FSPs often need to handle multiple frameworks to meet both local and international standards. Without the ability to customise these frameworks, managing compliance becomes more complicated and expensive.
Business Motivation
The financial services industry is governed by a complex array of regulatory and international certification standards, which vary widely across regions and sectors. For financial services providers (FSPs), staying compliant with these regulations is not only critical to avoid legal repercussions but also essential for maintaining trust and credibility with customers and stakeholders. However, the challenge lies in managing and adapting to the ever-evolving landscape of compliance standards, which can be resource-intensive and operationally complex.
EMTECH’s Custom Framework feature is designed to address this challenge:
- - by providing FSPs with the flexibility to create and manage compliance frameworks tailored to their specific regulatory needs
- - by allowing FSPs define compliance requirements based on local, national, and international standards reducing risk and operational burden.
Business Goals
Increased Adoption Rate
Achieve 30% adoption among FSP customers in 12 months.
Compliance Time Management
Cut compliance management time by 25% with automation and customization.
Customer Retention
Boost customer retention by 10% in two years with a reliable, customizable compliance solution.
UX Goals
- - Enable new users to complete key tasks with minimal training, reducing learning time by 30%.
- - Cut compliance framework update time by 40% with streamlined workflows.
What was I solving for?
To start building an understanding of custom framework in the context of Compliance Management, I used the following methods with my product partners:
- - Research: What are custom frameworks and what does managing them entail?
- - External User Interviews: What do our customers say? Do they have any specific insights or requests?
What I learned from consuming our existing user research and interviews done was that our
internally provided frameworks
wouldn’t be sufficient for certain FSPs who don’t exactly comply with the specific requirements from
regulators we had
on the platform.
From speaking to customers, we were able to gather their use cases (Names of
customers
modified/hidden for
confidentiality):
“I need to be able to bring in my company’s frameworks; also ensure it’s flexible enough to capture all the local regulatory nuances, but I don’t want it to feel too overwhelming when setting it up. It’s crucial that I can easily retrieve this framework later for audit purposes.”
~ Abiola Matthews, Compliance Manager
“Regulations change often, so it’s essential that I can modify frameworks easily without losing track of previous versions.”
~ Tammy Hudson, Compliance Lead
“It’s important that I can monitor multiple frameworks in one place without switching between systems.”
~ Rakesh Kamal, Risk Analyst
Initial Platform Pain Points
In the existing system, we provisioned FSPs with a plethora of frameworks with the assumption what we had would suffice; it was painful because it exempted some FSPs with bespoke frameworks as they could neither create nor insert these bespoke frameworks which they needed to bring onto our platform.
Problem Statement
Based on the understanding of the customer problems, we came up with the following statement that needed to be addressed through design in v1 of our Custom Framework.
“How might we design an intuitive, flexible custom compliance framework that simplifies setup, streamlines updates, tracks multiple frameworks, provides transparent audit trails, and reduces the learning curve—helping FSPs efficiently manage evolving regulatory requirements and mitigate compliance risks?”
Design Explorations
Solution Demo
Summary
Collaboration
One notable challenge was balancing customisation with performance; to resolve this, we conducted iterative performance tests and design adjustments. Additionally, I coordinated with our in-house policy team and external compliance experts to ensure that the final product met industry standards and user expectations, fostering a seamless blend of technical and regulatory expertise.
Lessons Learned
Two major things learned:
- 1. Collaborating with compliance experts provided invaluable insights that shaped the feature's practical relevance. Their input ensured the product met real-world regulatory needs, reinforcing the importance of involving domain specialists throughout the process.
- 2. Continuous feedback from end-users was instrumental in refining the product. Early usability testing helped catch issues that might have been overlooked during internal reviews.