Investitionsbank Berlin Optimizes Recertification with a New IAM Solution

The staff of the ‘monitoring office’ at Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) used to face significant challenges. This team is responsible for regularly reviewing the IT access permissions of all 850 employees at the financial institution, playing a key role in ensuring the bank meets all compliance requirements.

With growing regulatory demands in the financial sector, manual reviews have become increasingly time-consuming and error-prone – especially since many of IBB’s IT systems were not yet connected to a centralized Identity & Access Management (IAM) system.

Many managers lacked a clear understanding of the scope and implications of individual access rights, making it difficult to carry out proper and regular recertifications as required by MaRisk (Minimum Requirements for Risk Management).

To address this challenge, the bank initiated a public tender for a new IAM system. A key driver behind this move was the auditing firm’s demand for a daily, up-to-date overview of all access rights. In addition, the bank aimed to implement a consistent, standardized recertification process as part of the new solution.

A surprisingly fast implementation: Beta Systems was awarded the project, “because they have long-standing expertise in the banking sector,” says Percy Frahm, Head of Technical Infrastructure at Investitionsbank Berlin. “The provider had competent answers to all our questions regarding IAM that also convinced the auditors.”

The recertification portal included in the Garancy Suite, which required no additional programming effort, as well as the predefined role profiles were further key advantages. Implementation took just about six months – a remarkably short timeline for a project of this scale.

The Garancy Identity Manager provisioning module allows IBB to centrally administrate and control all user-related authorization information – including identities, groups, and roles – across its entire IT landscape.

Recertification of access rights is handled through the intuitive web interface of the Garancy Recertification Center, where the persons in charge review employee roles and authorizations. If a permission is not renewed, it is automatically revoked.

“With Garancy, we now have an out-of-the-box Identity Access Management solution that other software providers simply do not offer,” says Eike Thore Schmaida, highlighting one of the key reasons the bank chose Beta Systems.

Today, IBB’s authorization and certification workflows are considered a best-practice model within the promotional banking sector. By automating and streamlining IAM processes, the bank’s IT and management teams are free to focus more on customer-facing and strategic initiatives.