Driving Operational Excellence Through Risk Management and Process Expertise

Desired Capabilities

Regulatory Compliance
Operational Risk
Operational Efficiency
Governance and Policy
Process Management
Enterprise Risk Management

The Situation

A national bank aimed to elevate its operational excellence across every business line, but it lacked the staff and related bandwidth to execute such a large-scale initiative efficiently and successfully – and still maintain daily performance standards. Under the pressure of increased regulatory scrutiny, the bank needed an external partner with the expertise and experience to support it in delivering this major project, as well as its implementation within various first and second-line functions. Unassailable risk management and compliance practices were critical in supporting the bank’s ambitious growth strategy.

The Challenge

Comprehensively identify and interpret applicable regulatory requirements to map to first-line processes, perform process risk and control assessments, then leverage that information to implement enhanced operational risk standards and controls and update applicable testing scripts and plans to ensure the bank meets all customer and regulatory expectations.

Meaningful Outcomes

Partnered with the client to strengthen its overall risk management landscape, including automated reporting to track compliance.
Deployed consistent control guidance across all product lines: credit cards, deposits, and mortgage and consumer lending (auto, student and personal loans).
Introduced innovative approaches that saved time and expenses in implementing operational standards.
Positioned the organization for compliance, which will better serve customers and meet regulatory requirements.

Our Approach

Spinnaker Consulting Group leveraged its front-line experience to develop a tailored execution strategy for the bank’s High Priority Processes (HPPs). The bank had already conducted end-to-end mapping of both the process and system, which our team reviewed to identify risk- and compliance-related gaps and opportunities.

Applying an organizational process developed by one of our consultants, our team deployed a streamlined, efficient approach for identifying control guidance, which are plain language interpretations of the mapped regulatory requirements or internal bank policies. We also trained the bank’s employees on how to use this time-saving process for lower-tier processes going forward.

To ensure a consistent customer experience, the team drafted control guidance and consolidated multiple customer commitments into specific standards. Over the nine-month assignment, we augmented the bank’s staff with 15 consultants stepping in to contribute immediate expertise in different workstreams. Our consultants ensured all processes and standards were linked to the bank’s operational system, which will support robust compliance reporting and issue tracking.

With new tools and resources in place, Spinnaker conducted quality reviews, assessed and validated the execution of controls, and developed ongoing testing plans. The team also developed action plans for continued process evolution.