Smartstream targets the mismatches banks overlook in reconciliation

It is investing in AI to remove risks, reduce costs, and make manpower more efficient.

Over forty-five years on, Smartstream said that it still reinvests in the newest technology to unlock more efficiency in finance institutions.

“We reinvest a lot into artificial intelligence, into modern technology, because while operations is not the sexiest place in the banking and financial services industry, these technologies really help you to unlock that additional bit of efficiency,” said Kamaldev Puri, Sales Director Asia at Smartstream Technologies Limited.

Whilst known in the banking and finance space for their reconciliation services, today Smartstream is focused on de-siloing companies' middle and back office—or, as Puri calls it, removing risks, reducing costs, and making manpowers more efficient.

The key to a successful reconciliation platform and business is not just to measure the match rates but to take note of the ones that do not match.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is, aside from the match rates, exceptions are key that we need to manage in a reconciliation solution. And that’s what we aim to do,” Puri said.

Its proprietary AI does not just match for companies, but when an exception happens, the AI and Smartstream studies why the exceptions happen while AI suggests what should have matched, Puri said.

“We reduce the life cycle it takes to onboard new reconciliations by suggesting what should have matched, what should it match, and that's really what I wanted to tell you guys about today,” he said.

The flagship platform Smart Reconciliations builds workflows specific to a company’s processes, making use of an industry’s standard best practice as well as their proprietary AI software.

“We don’t use any other AI software out there,” Puri said. “We provide an enterprise level platform that caters for any and every type of reconciliation in your institution.”

Smartstream has six different business lines that provide solutions for reconciliations, Puri said.

Puri says that the platform is scalable, so that companies can either start off with a very tine use case or a large one. They build their packages in modules and allow customisable workflows as needed by a company.