VP of development strives for RegTech innovation and quality in AML solutions
Travis Bender is central to the success and RegTech innovation of AML Partners. Though he first joined the company as a junior programmer, today Travis serves as Vice President of Development. A natural problem-solver and creative thinker, Travis shares some thoughts on the challenges and opportunities in leadership at AML Partners. And he reflects on his work in the field of AML software and innovative RegTech solutions.
AML software and RegTech: Focusing on future drives quality, innovation in development today
Q: How do you help drive quality and innovation in AML Partners’ AML software and RegTech solutions?
A: A principle that I have witnessed lead to quality and innovation is to always consider the future. We want a healthy balance of solving problems in front of us today in a way that helps us tomorrow. This is a pretty broad idea, but there are two main applications in my day-to-day work.
First, because I manage software development here at AML Partners, I look at thinking into the future from a software design perspective. More concretely, this involves:
- Planning for reuse. In an extremely configurable platform like RegTechONE, a good feature is a reusable one and that maximizes value to our clients.
- Knowing your scale. Ensuring features are performant across all of our clients.
- Mapping out impact. Identifying dependencies in changes to maintain compatibility.
Second, considering the future is important when interacting with colleagues to build a strong team. When providing feedback on code reviews or helping out with issues, I make a point to provide why a task should be done a certain way, not just the how. As developers, we want to understand the reasoning so that next time we run into a similar scenario we know how to tackle it right off the bat.
As a case in point, I started out here as a junior developer on the Implementation team. At the time, I had lots of questions for the then-head developer about issues or bugs I was trying to solve, and he provided detailed responses that I often referred back to. Now I find myself in his shoes answering questions and providing assistance in the same way.
Research, initiative, and asking questions are key traits for aspiring developers in AML software and beyond
Q: What are traits of successful software engineers that aspiring developers can emulate?
A: When you run into a task you are not sure how to solve, asking questions is important. You get a better understanding of the task at hand and it saves time because someone else on the team has likely run into a similar issue.
However, you also want to strive to be able to work on tasks independently. Therefore, before asking a question, always do your own research first. The more senior developers around you don’t know all the answers right off the bat. Rather, they are likely good troubleshooters and researchers.
Once you have conducted that research, explain what you tried when you ask someone for help as they want to see that you have made an effort. When you get an answer, save it somewhere that you can refer back to. No one wants to be asked the same question repeatedly, and this reference should be the first place you check next time. This isn’t an area you ever fully “arrive” in. That’s part of what makes the job fun and interesting: You never stop learning.
Gaining clarity early leads to successful RegTech software implementations and satisfied clients
Q: How can financial institutions have the best outcome when implementing new technology to support their AML Compliance work?
A: Our clients appreciate that changes can quickly be made in RegTechONE. They won’t need to alter code in the back end. Nevertheless, it’s important to have a core set of well-defined requirements going into an implementation project/iteration/sprint.
Throughout the process, we work closely with clients to understand their workflows. But ultimately they will always know the ins and outs better because they work in it every day. We encourage our clients to create mockups and flowcharts so that we can resolve any holes in the business logic and everyone understands exactly what is requested. To this end, our Implementation team helps clear up uncertainties in requirements so that when the project starts we have a clear game plan to accomplish.
Thriving clients produce best reward for developers in AML software, RegTech innovations
Q: What elements of your work in software development for AML solutions bring you the most satisfaction?
A: I get the most satisfaction when we develop an elegant solution to meet a business need, and we complete and deliver it to our clients. A large part of our development work is creating interfaces, such as to screening services or source systems, and over the years we have built out quite a number! The icing on the cake is when clients happily let us know how much time they are saving in their workflow ever since RegTechONE and its interfaces unified their disparate business processes.
