Meet Sarah, a risk manager at a mid-sized bank. Every month, she spends her first week collecting data from 12 different systems, manually copying and pasting numbers into spreadsheets. By the time she finishes her Asset and Liability Management (ALM) analysis, the market has moved, and her insights are already outdated.
Sarah's story isn't unique. A lot of banks are still running their ALM processes like it's 1995, and the hidden costs are enormous. The purpose of this post is to reveal the true costs of manual ALM processes and show how SAS ALM on Viya can transform your risk management from a time-consuming burden into a strategic advantage.
The monthly ALM nightmare
It is month end, and Sarah's team is pulling 60-hour weeks. They are manually extracting data from the core banking system, the loan origination platform, the deposit system, and nine other sources. Each extraction requires different login credentials, different export formats, and different data cleaning and manipulation procedures.
The real cost? Sarah's bank spends north of €50,000 in overtime every month, and their regulatory reports are consistently two weeks late. When interest rates jumped 75 basis points last quarter, they were making critical decisions based on three-week-old data.
But here is the kicker: Sarah's team isn't analyzing risk or developing strategy. They are glorified data entry clerks, and they know it.
The Three Hidden Costs Killing Your ALM Efficiency
The Time Drain Research shows that 40% of ALM staff time is spent on data collection, not analysis. Think about that for a moment. Your most skilled risk professionals are spending nearly half their time doing work that a software could do in minutes.
Sarah's team of five risk analysts spends 80 hours each month just gathering data. That's two full work weeks where no actual risk analysis happens. Meanwhile, markets are moving, customer behaviors are shifting, and competitive threats are emerging.
The Error Risk Manual processes create a 15% error rate in critical calculations. When humans copy and paste thousands of numbers, mistakes happen. A misplaced decimal point in a duration calculation can throw off your entire interest rate risk assessment.
Last year, a European bank discovered they had been using the wrong maturity dates for their mortgage portfolio for six months. The error? Someone had manually entered "30" instead of "360" in a key formula. The regulatory fine was substantial, but the reputation damage was worse.
The Opportunity Loss While your team is busy collecting yesterday's data, your competitors are making decisions based on real-time insights. In today's fast-moving markets, decisions made on week-old data are more like guesses than strategic choices.
During the March 2023 banking crisis, successful institutions were able to model and respond to deposit flight patterns within hours. Banks relying on manual processes were still calculating their exposure days later.
SAS Asset and Liability Managment on Viya: Your Automation Solution
Here's where SAS ALM on Viya changes everything. Instead of spending weeks collecting data, your team can focus on what they do best: analyzing risk and developing strategy.
Automated Data Integration SAS ALM on Viya connects directly to all your systems. No more manual extractions, no more copying and pasting, no more version control nightmares. Your data flows automatically from source systems into your ALM calculations.
Sarah's bank implemented this integration this year. What used to take five people a week now happens automatically overnight. The system pulls data from their core banking platform, applies data quality rules, and loads clean, validated information into their ALM models.
Real-Time Calculations Instead of monthly snapshots, you get continuous risk monitoring. Interest rate sensitivity, liquidity gaps, and capital adequacy calculations update as new transactions flow through your systems.
When the European Central Bank announced an unexpected rate change last month, Sarah's team had updated risk assessments within hours, not weeks. They could model the impact on their net interest margin and adjust their strategy immediately.
Built-In Validation SAS ALM on Viya includes automatic error checking and data quality controls. The system flags anomalies, validates calculations, and ensures consistency across your entire ALM framework.
Those decimal point errors that plagued manual processes? They're caught automatically. The system validates that duration calculations make sense, that cash flows balance, and that risk metrics fall within expected ranges.
Instant Reporting Generate regulatory reports in minutes, not days. IRRBB reports, liquidity coverage ratios, and stress test results are produced automatically from your integrated data.
Sarah's team now generates their monthly board report in 30 minutes instead of three days. The report includes current risk metrics, scenario analysis, and forward-looking projections that help executives make informed decisions.
The Transformation: Before vs. After
Let's look at the numbers from Sarah's bank:
Before SAS ALM on Viya:
- 3 weeks to complete monthly ALM cycle
- 5 people working 60-hour weeks during month-end
- 15% error rate in manual calculations
- Regulatory reports submitted 2 weeks late
- Strategic analysis limited to quarterly reviews
After SAS ALM on Viya:
- 3 days to complete monthly ALM cycle
- Team focused on strategic analysis and scenario modeling
- Less than 1% error rate with automated validation
- Regulatory reports submitted on time with detailed analysis
- Continuous risk monitoring with real-time alerts
The Bottom Line: 80% reduction in processing time, 95% fewer errors, and real-time insights that enable proactive risk management.
But the real transformation isn't just in the numbers. Sarah's team went from being frustrated data collectors to strategic risk advisors. They're now building sophisticated behavioral models, running complex scenario analyses, and providing insights that drive business decisions.
Your Next Step: Start Your Automation Journey
The banking industry is at a turning point. Institutions that embrace automation will have a significant competitive advantage, while those clinging to manual processes will struggle to keep up.
SAS ALM on Viya provides the complete solution for modern ALM. The platform handles data integration, risk calculations, scenario modeling, and regulatory reporting in a single, integrated environment.
Your Implementation Roadmap:
- Start with data integration: Connect your core systems to eliminate manual data collection
- Implement automated calculations: Replace spreadsheet-based models with integrated risk analytics
- Build real-time monitoring: Set up alerts and dashboards for continuous risk oversight
- Expand to advanced analytics: Add scenario modeling, stress testing, and predictive capabilities
The ROI is typically realized within six months, but the strategic benefits will last for years.
The Future Belongs to the Automated
Sarah's story has a happy ending. Her bank now leads their market in ALM sophistication. They make faster decisions, take smarter risks, and consistently outperform their competitors.
More importantly, Sarah and her team love their jobs again. They're doing what they were trained to do: analyse risk, develop strategy, and protect their institution's future.
The question isn't whether to automate your ALM processes. It's whether you'll lead the transformation or be left behind by competitors who moved first.
In the world of banking, speed and accuracy determine who stays in business. As one risk executive recently told me: "We can either spend our time collecting and fixing data or we can spend it making strategic decisions. We cannot do both."
Which one are you going to pick?
Ready to transform your ALM processes? SAS ALM on Viya is the platform that can take you from manual processes to strategic advantage. The technology is proven, the ROI is clear, and your team is ready for the change.
For more information on SAS Risk Management Solutions visit the software information page here. For more information on curated learnings paths on SAS Solutions and SAS Viya, visit the SAS Training page. You can also browse the catalog of SAS courses here.
Find more articles from SAS Global Enablement and Learning here.
