How A Large US Bank Strengthened Controls While Reducing Manual IAM Work

A Critical Breaking Point for Governance, Scale and Operational Load

In large, highly regulated financial institutions, identity programs eventually hit a point where manual work and fragmented processes can no longer sustain governance or scale. That moment arrived for the bank when growing onboarding demands, evolving audit expectations, and increasing user access review (UAR) complexity highlighted the need for stronger governance. As oversight expectations increased, high-risk and SOX-governed applications required more consistency, and the bank saw an opportunity to elevate its processes and metadata quality to support a more scalable identity program.

At the same time, operations and engineering teams were buried under ServiceNow requests for routine but essential IAM tasks, including Active Directory group creation, SailPoint IdentityIQ role updates, non-human identity provisioning, and admin account setup. UAR reviewers provided unstructured reasoning, which created additional follow-up work and delayed closure of access review campaigns. The identity program could not scale further without a stronger foundation, so the bank’s leadership partnered with Palyrian to modernize governance, strengthen controls, and reduce manual effort while maintaining the bank’s high standards for security and compliance.

Improving Governance and Velocity While Supporting Internal Teams

Recognizing the maturity that was required from their foundational identity program, the bank needed a modernized operating model that strengthened governance without overwhelming already strained teams. Engineering and operations teams required clearer processes, better alignment and a more consistent way to onboard applications and run UARs. Application owners also needed a simpler, more predictable experience that reduced effort and encouraged full participation in the IdentityIQ program.

Meeting these needs required a combination of process redesign, targeted automation, and technical enhancements inside IdentityIQ. Palyrian partnered with the bank to help define this approach, bringing the engineering depth and identity program experience needed to build a scalable model that supported long term modernization goals.

A Scalable Identity Operating Model Built Inside SailPoint IdentityIQ

A Streamlined and Audit-Ready Onboarding Model

The bank introduced a standardized completeness and accuracy framework aligned to its control requirements. Palyrian helped redesign onboarding workflows to reduce manual steps, shorten review cycles, and apply controls consistently. One updated risk acceptance document eliminated the need for user acceptance testing across an entire class of applications, delivering an estimated $250,000 in annual savings. The stronger model supported the successful onboarding of 180 applications in a single year.

Self-Service Tools That Removed Manual Work

Palyrian worked with the bank to build custom self-service capabilities inside IdentityIQ, allowing application teams to complete tasks independently. These included:

• Active Directory group creation
• IdentityIQ role updates
• Non-human identity creation
• Admin account provisioning

These tools reduced ticket volume, standardized naming conventions and metadata quality, and enabled faster updates. Operations teams gained time back to focus on higher value work.

A Trusted and Efficient UAR Process

The bank replaced spreadsheet-driven UARs with a fully custom certification campaign inside IdentityIQ, giving reviewers the ability to validate key metadata such as role names, descriptions, and application codes through a purpose-built guided interface tailored to the bank’s governance needs.

To eliminate follow-up work, Palyrian built a custom plugin that required reviewers to select predefined reasons for approvals or revocations. This removed manual loopback analysis entirely and freed an operations team of five to support other governance priorities.

Engineering Processes Built for Scale

Engineering delivery accelerated significantly once pull request reviews, branching practices, and release methods were standardized. Deployment prep that previously required more than three hours, and rebasing cycles that often consumed five or more hours, were reduced to a fraction of the time.

Strengthening the Foundation for Enterprise Scale

With a modern identity foundation in place, and with Palyrian’s support in resolving two MRAs, a significant accomplishment that strengthens regulatory confidence and reduces audit risk, the bank is now focused on extending additional self-service capabilities and continued modernizations across the enterprise. The next phase includes onboarding the remaining 600 total applications in its catalog, expanding the self-service catalog to cover additional high value workflows, and applying custom UAR patterns to more business units.

Together with Palyrian’s guidance, the bank is also investing in deeper metadata standardization and exploring automation opportunities that will reduce operational load and improve governance visibility. As the program matures, these improvements will position the bank to adopt AI-assisted governance and advanced decision support with confidence.

Palyrian continues to guide the roadmap development and execution, ensuring the bank can scale its identity controls, processes, and platform capabilities in a way that supports long term security, compliance, and operational efficiency.

Move From Manual IAM to Modern, Automated Governance

If your identity program is reaching the limits of manual work and aging processes, you can still modernize even if you rely on on-premises systems. Palyrian can help your organization build a scalable identity model that strengthens governance and supports long term growth. Schedule a consultation to explore what is possible for your IAM foundation.