Supporting firms through s166 and enhanced supervision situations – advising on approaches and responses to the Skilled Person and regulator, and on remediation programmes. Undertaking root cause analysis to fully understand why control failures have happened, and developing solutions to reduce the likelihood of repeated failings.

Working with the Board and Exco to enhance the governance frameworks and increase the focus on identifying and actioning risks and opportunities. Enhancing the effectiveness of governance structures and committees (improving the flow of risk issues through committees to Exco and the Board, and the evidencing of senior management taking appropriate action). Advising Boards on SMCR requirements.

Developing and implementing effective frameworks and processes that enable the firm to understand and control the risk landscape. developing and maturing the risk strategy, with effective risk categorisation, Risk Policies, Risk Appetites and ERMF – with clear thresholds, owners and escalation. Working with senior management to embed the culture, improve their performance, and clarify their roles and responsibilities.

Ensuring firms recognise the importance of the ‘people element’ in their pursuit of strategic objectives. Developing an effective culture, to support these objectives. Increasing accountability and ensuring staff (and senior management) have the training, competencies and inclination to deliver. Building frameworks to address key person dependency with effective mitigators and succession planning. Utilising recruitment and performance management to drive the firm objectives and reduce risk.

Supporting 1st Line teams in developing effective controls for operational and regulatory risk. Upskilling senior management in the 1st Line and developing policies, procedures and the underlying control culture. Enhancing controls and oversight across: sales process, collections, complaints, QA and other areas.

Working with firms to develop appropriate business entry strategies, that take into account commercial needs and regulatory requirements. Then managing the authorisation process, and working with teams in operational areas to actually build the necessary policies, procedures and controls to run the business.