Nissan Financial Services reduces compliance costs with AI-driven solutions despite stricter regulatory requirements

Nissan Financial Services is the financial subsidiary of car giant Nissan. It offers leases and car loans to its customers and operates in 12 markets worldwide, including Australia, the US, and India. 

Because of its size and global reach, Nissan Financial Services faces complex, wide-ranging regulatory requirements and financial crime risks when onboarding new customers. To meet these requirements, the company previously used different compliance tools in each of its markets. However, this fragmented system caused difficulties and failed to match the global nature of financial crime risks, with siloed data and manual processes causing problems for the company’s compliance team. 

The company therefore needed a compliance program that worked efficiently and could be implemented consistently across the company while meeting specific local obligations in different markets. 

Efficiency means choosing buy over build

Nissan Financial Services had initially considered building a new in-house solution but decided the cost and time commitment involved would only cause more problems: compliance would become a financial burden on the company, while the problem of meeting regulatory requirements in the short term would remain. 

As a result, the company decided to look for external compliance partners to fulfill these needs with a market-leading, easy-to-implement solution. This decision was made easier by the availability of ComplyAdvantage’s platform, which stood out among compliance software vendors because of its AI-powered automation capabilities across customer screening, ongoing monitoring, and record-keeping. 

The fact that ComplyAdvantage offered an all-in-one platform that could be used by the company’s global teams was also an important factor in the partnership, as was the expertise of the ComplyAdvantage team with all Nissan Financial Services’ relevant regulatory regimes. Since using ComplyAdvantage’s Customer Screening and Ongoing Monitoring solution, Nissan’s compliance team estimates that building something as effective in-house would have taken five to seven years. 

“We didn’t want to build our own solution in-house, mainly because of the time and the costs associated with it. Plus, there are experts out there in the market who we can utilize – hence why we chose ComplyAdvantage. Their solution would take five, six, seven years and a lot of resources for us to build. Being able to just tap into that was perfect for us.” 

John Skorup, Global Head of Compliance – Sales Finance, Nissan Financial Services 

Usability and AI features simplify compliance 

With the company aiming to move from a fragmented compliance process to a streamlined one, its solution had to be easy to set up and use day-to-day. ComplyAdvantage fulfilled this from day one with a straightforward implementation process, the result of API-first integration, out-of-the-box features, and rulesets customizable to Nissan Financial Services’ specific risks and risk appetite. 

Since then, the functionality of the platform has continued to impress. ComplyAdvantage’s market-leading AI capabilities were especially influential in upgrading the company’s compliance setup, including advanced matching algorithms and automatically refreshed proprietary data across key risk categories like sanctions, politically exposed persons (PEPs), and adverse media. Nissan Financial Services stakeholders also praised the comprehensive API documentation available, as well as automatic record-keeping, allowing for a clear, easily accessible audit trail. 

Switching to an integrated global platform from several siloed systems has helped the company transform regulatory compliance from a fragmented, manual, labor-intensive process into a streamlined operation. 

“What sets ComplyAdvantage apart from its competition is the fact that some of the other solutions are very basic and very limited. They didn’t have AI, they didn’t have record-keeping, they’re very manual, data-heavy, intensive processes.” 

John Skorup, Global Head of Compliance – Sales Finance, Nissan Financial Services 

An integrated solution creates a unified global approach

ComplyAdvantage’s regulatory expertise and strong presence across different markets have been crucial. Our Customer Success teams have worked with Nissan Financial Services’ various local compliance teams to ensure smooth implementation and optimize their screening processes over time, with the ease and value of this collaboration appreciated by stakeholders. This ongoing support has allowed Nissan to improve its cross-border compliance and develop beneficial relationships with multiple regulators. 

“ComplyAdvantage spoke to us mainly due to the fact that it was a one-stop solution – it was a no-brainer for us.” 

John Skorup, Global Head of Compliance – Sales Finance, Nissan Financial Services 

Whether from the perspective of these local compliance teams or global business leadership, ComplyAdvantage’s solution has proved highly efficient and fit for purpose. The result: the company has seen significant savings in its overall compliance spend since partnering with ComplyAdvantage, despite the fact that its regulatory obligations have become stricter in that time. 

“ComplyAdvantage has been fantastic for us. Implementation has been seamless and straightforward and the cost savings that we’ve made over the past three years have been significant. As regulations have increased, we’ve managed to actually decrease the cost of our financial crime compliance program.” 

John Skorup, Global Head of Compliance – Sales Finance, Nissan Financial Services