eToro switches to ARKK for smart and accurate CRD IV reporting

Overview

eToro is a rapidly growing social investment broker. Recognised as pioneers of ‘social trading’ – the practice of trading socially, sharing trading knowledge and giving users the ability to follow other traders, and profit from their trades.

Quick to adapt to trader demands, eToro’s cryptocurrency fund provides their clients with quick and easy access to Bitcoin, Ethereum and five other cryptocurrencies.

The problem

Stemming from the FCA’s requirements for stronger data validity, eToro received a letter noting some inconsistencies in their submissions. “We’d been submitting COREP with our previous provider for four years” says Kreeson Thathiah, eToro’s Head of Finance and Client Money. “I was concerned to find out that whilst our returns had all been accurate, an error in our previous suppliers’ software had distorted our numbers and incorrectly converted our templates.”

Looking for an alternative solution to help resolve these errors, Kreeson reached out to ARKK. “I’d worked with ARKK previously and remembered their solutions being very user friendly an easy to follow.” Within two weeks, Kreeson switched to ARKK, and the team got to work on supporting eToro through four years of resubmissions.

The solution

Due to these legacy challenges, eToro was determined to get the resubmission right first time. Using ARKK’s data repository and HTML viewer, Kreeson uploaded their previous XBRL submissions, and transformed these back into editable Excel. From here, the ARKK team built and ran a macro to reset the figures. Next, ARKK made additional adjustments in line with the FCA and EBA’s requirements.

As well as the solution, Kreeson had access to ARKK’s expert support team for the process of reconverting and editing previous returns. “The information that came back from ARKK was so clear and transparent,” adds Kreeson. With a consistent contact working on the returns, Kreeson had confidence in ARKK’s ability to deliver. “If I wanted an update or needed to ask a question I’d get straight on the phone and I never needed to wait – I was delighted with how well the Support and Product teams managed the process. I could tell I was in good hands.”

As a result, eToro re-uploaded four years of submissions to the FCA in one week. “I expected this process this to take far longer,” adds Kreeson. “I was seriously impressed at the speed we managed to get all of our returns resubmitted.”

The outcome

With the resubmissions fixed and submitted to the FCA, Kreeson’s team then looked to their live 2018 COREP and Asset Encumbrance filings.

Even for experienced CRD IV filers, understanding the EBA’s validation errors is amongst the biggest CRD IV challenges, as changes ensue with each release of a new taxonomy, which are not always clear to understand. “With ARKK, I really like the ability to click a validation error, and go straight to the cell with the issue. I don’t think most people can imagine it being that simple!” says Kreeson. The ability to solve errors directly without decoding the jargon-heavy error messages saves the team a considerable amount of time.

In addition to the direct link to validation errors, eToro liked ARKK’s templates, which are all contained on one workbook. “With previous suppliers, I’ve seen separate workbooks for every return,” adds Kreeson, “it’s much easier to work on the same file for all returns, and creates a far slicker workflow across different teams.”

Summary

With ARKK, Kreeson was able to resubmit 16 COREP and 12 Asset Encumbrance reports with all inconsistencies from his previous provider resolved within just one week. Thanks to ARKK, eToro now has a smoother workflow using just one CRD IV Excel workbook, allowing swift click-through to any validation errors. “For any fellow Finance peers with concerns around the FCA’s new guidelines, ARKK is the sure-fire way to get things right, and get them done quickly.”