Because many banks treat their issue management process as a check-the-box exercise, they can fail to effectively identify and mitigate potential risk.
Too often, different stakeholders use inefficient manual tools such as spreadsheets to handle their issue management process. This approach can create confusion due to disparate or incomplete reporting related to content, remediation status, and documentation. The resulting confusion makes it difficult to get a full picture of the issues the organization might be facing because it’s not clear how to prioritize risk mitigation, identify emerging trends, and locate root causes.
By making the issues management process more consistent and less cumbersome, though, banks can improve accountability throughout their organizations and make it easier to assess the maturity of their risk management programs.
Use a systematic 6-step issue management process to help identify and prevent risk
Taking these six steps can help support a robust issue management process:
- Identify the issue. Clearly define issues to help prioritize mitigation strategies and potentially prevent recurrence of similar issues in the future.
- Vet the issue. Analyze and consult with key stakeholders to get agreement that you have an issue and need to address it.
- Determine treatment. Based on risk tolerance levels, decide whether the organization should plan to remediate, mitigate, or seek acceptance.
- Track remediation progress. Continually monitor remediation activities to determine if additional modifications or updates need to be made.
- Validate completion. Double-check to make sure the issue has either been resolved or record the reasons why it was not resolved along with the appropriate level of approval for not resolving it.
- Document the process. Record information to aid management and regulatory reporting and determine how well the organization is addressing issues and where improvements should be made.
These steps can help create consistent ownership in the issue management process and distribute the responsibility of risk management throughout the organization and its lines of defense.
Use technology to streamline your issue management process
Speed is an essential component of the issue management process. Quick and efficient communication can help resolve issues as they arise and prevent them from being overlooked or potentially worsening.
An integrated risk management platform can centralize processes and help avoid challenges of integrating issues with different people, systems, and workflows. For example, trying to collect data by emailing spreadsheets back and forth to 10 employees makes it difficult to track progress, receive timely responses, and collect accurate data.
However, a comprehensive risk management technology solution can help drive consistency within the issue management process and provide insights that can improve the culture of the organization and help it become more aware of risk and mitigation activities.
Crowe IRM-as-a-Service can reposition your issue management process and put risk into clearer focus
Crowe risk management professionals’ years of experience helping banks achieve integrated risk management led us to create Crowe IRM-as-a-Service. This centralized solution creates a hub for risk and compliance activity and helps streamline communication related to the issue identification and management process. Once your team members have access to a centralized platform that helps them speak the same language, your organization can confidently explore growth strategies with agility and speed.
To learn more or schedule a demo, visit the Crowe IRM-as-a-Service webpage.
Feel like you might need to update and refine your issue management process? We’d be happy to help. Let us know and we’ll make time to chat.
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