Financial institutions maintain a variety of operational, financial, regulatory and compliance controls that require periodic testing to ensure their design and operational effectiveness. Controls testing is typically a manual, labor intensive process, and organizations historically have not considered automating controls testing due to the fragmented nature of the inputs required for controls testing, and the lack of a systemic approach to assess the potential automation of control tests.

In order to utilize available resources most efficiently and to spend less time and effort on controls testing, an organization must be able to quickly evaluate a large group of controls and determine their readiness for automation – allowing it to find quick 'wins' that are ready for automation now, while also identifying common barriers to automation that hinder wider implementation of automated controls tests.

To enable the automation of control-centric functions, Capco has developed a repeatable methodology – or playbook– to help our clients determine whether a population of controls tests are suitable for automation; and how to evaluate automation readiness via an agile, flexible, and adaptable approach that meets the needs of any financial institution.