2 minute read | December.31.2015
With evolving regulatory expectations and increased enforcement exposure, financial institutions are under more scrutiny than ever. Nowhere is this more evident than in the management and oversight of service providers. When service providers are part of an institution’s business practice, understanding the expectations of regulators, investors, and counterparties for compliance with consumer financial laws is critical.
CFPB Guidance
In 2012, the CFPB issued Bulletin 2012-03, which outlines the CFPB’s expectations regarding supervised institutions’ use of third party service providers. Banks and nonbanks alike are expected to maintain effective processes for managing the risks presented by service providers, including taking the following steps:
Implementing consistent risk-based procedures for monitoring third party service provider relationships is an extremely important aspect of meeting the CFPB’s expectations and mitigating risk to the institution.
The Risk Management Lifecycle and Best Practices
The CFPB is but one of many agencies that have circulated vendor management guidance. Other federal prudential regulators—most notably the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency—have developed regulatory guidance describing a “lifecycle” for oversight of third parties that supervised institutions are expected to follow. The risk management lifecycle of a service provider relationship consists of:
Supplemented by enhanced risk management processes, including meaningful involvement by the Board of Directors and extensive monitoring of performance and condition, the new framework for oversight of third parties can present both cost and operational challenges for all institutions. Financial institutions would be prudent to implement the following best practices into their vendor management procedures, among others: