Customer Story

Leading U.S. Bank Reduces Unclaimed Property Compliance Processing Time by 70%

Products

The Challenge

A major U.S. bank with $175+ billion in assets completed one of the largest bank acquisitions in recent years, expanding its footprint to more than 1,100 branches across 11 states. While the acquisition strengthened the bank’s competitive position, it created significant compliance challenges, particularly for unclaimed property reporting.

The bank had previously managed its unclaimed property obligations in-house using manual processes and spreadsheets. However, the acquisition dramatically increased the volume and complexity of unclaimed property management, introducing thousands of new accounts and multiple property types across different jurisdictions. This made it virtually impossible to continue managing operations without the aid of technology.

Exponential Increase in Complexity: The acquisition introduced thousands of new accounts across multiple states, each with unique unclaimed property reporting requirements and dormancy periods
Diverse Portfolio of Property Types: The combined entity needed to manage dormant accounts, uncashed checks, abandoned safe deposit boxes, unclaimed loan payments, uncashed dividend checks, and numerous other financial instruments
System Integration Issues: The acquired bank used different record-keeping systems, with inconsistent historical data and property identification methods
Regulatory Pressure: State unclaimed property offices were increasingly aggressive with audits and compliance enforcement, creating significant financial risk
Resource Constraints: The compliance team was already stretched thin managing the operational aspects of the acquisition, making it impossible to manually process the combined unclaimed property workload

The Solution

After evaluating several vendors, the bank selected Sovos to implement a comprehensive unclaimed property solution across all its operations. The implementation included:

Consolidated Property Management: A centralized solution that streamlined the process across both legacy and newly acquired entities. Over 50,000 records were analyzed for escheatment.
Automated Due Diligence: Streamlined owner outreach processes to attempt reunification before property escheated to the states, supporting both customer satisfaction and regulatory compliance.
Integrated Reporting: Complete outsourcing of state-specific reports and forms, ensuring timely filing across all jurisdictions.

The Results

With Sovos Unclaimed Property, the bank achieved significant results:

Comprehensive Compliance: Successfully identified, processed, and reported escheated property across 47 states within the first year
Operational Efficiency: Reduced the time spent on UP compliance processes by approximately 70%, allowing staff to focus on core integration activities
Risk Mitigation: Avoided potential penalties and interest that could have exceeded $2 million through timely and accurate reporting
Audit Readiness: Established a comprehensive system of record with full audit trails, dramatically reducing the risk and potential impact of state examinations

Why Sovos?

For financial institutions undergoing significant growth or transformation, Sovos provides the expertise and technology to ensure unclaimed property compliance doesn’t become a liability. The combination of comprehensive jurisdictional coverage, financial industry specialization, and scalable technology makes Sovos the partner of choice for organizations navigating complex regulatory requirements.

Key differentiators that led to the bank’s selection of Sovos included:

Financial Services Expertise: Deep understanding of banking-specific property types and reporting requirements
Complete Geographic Coverage: Supporting compliance across all reporting jurisdictions
Scalable Architecture: Ability to handle high transaction volumes from multiple source systems
Integration Capabilities: Seamless connections to core banking platforms
Continuous Regulatory Updates: Automatic incorporation of changing state requirements

For a national bank managing a complex acquisition while maintaining regulatory compliance, Sovos provided the technology foundation needed to transform a potential compliance crisis into a success story.