About the Company
Our client is one of the country’s leading financial service providers, delivering a range of banking, personal finance and wealth management solutions and services. For almost five decades, our client has been at the top of the industry, helping investors craft robust, personalized strategies that meet (and exceed) their financial needs.
A Need for Efficiency and Expediency
There was a specific need for the services of National Quality Review (NQR) at the company. The audit documents it requests from its financial intermediaries are extraordinarily extensive — typically filling about 60 pages. Those documents are a critical part of its oversight program, creating a notable need for a third party with dedicated resources and expertise to provide complete, efficient, and effective reviews.
As part of its audit review process, the company sent a due diligence questionnaire (DDQ) requiring intermediaries to address questions related to the 17 control areas in the FICCA framework. Typically, if clients request an audit report but are unable to obtain one, they will send a DDQ to intermediaries as a stand in. If they can obtain an audit report, they will follow up with a customized questionnaire to fill any gaps before finalizing their review.
In our client’s case, their DDQs received inadequate responses, leading them and NQR to create new customized questionnaires based on gaps identified by NQR as part of their in-depth audit report reviews. “It’s definitely made us more efficient,” said the company’s director of intermediary oversight and transfer agency administration. “But from an intermediary partner perspective, it’s also much less tedious for them.”
Successful Oversight From the Ground Up
NQR was a natural fit for our client when the intermediary oversight director first joined. In his previous role, he had worked with NQR for five years and was convinced of the value of cultivating a new partnership once he joined the company.
When he took up his position, the company was just beginning to develop its oversight program. NQR has played a vital role providing support from a due diligence standpoint, making a significant contribution to the overall success of its intermediary oversight program.
A Partnership Powered by Adaptability
Our client feels confident that whenever they approach NQR regarding a new initiative, NQR representatives will demonstrate a consistent receptiveness; the NQR staff is always well prepared to build new reports that meet the company’s evolving needs.
A lean and adaptable approach to a changing industry, coupled with a willingness to explore bespoke solutions for clients differentiates NQR in an evolving business environment. “The receptiveness of NQR to build new reports and their proactivity to come to us with additional solutions has been great,” said the intermediary oversight director.
Future of the Relationship
The future of the relationship between our client and NQR is bright. “We have no intention of ever moving away from NQR,” he said. “They provide an invaluable service to my team.”
In fact, the partnership has already expanded into other areas. Our client has a series of teams that outsource work to third parties that require oversight including audit report reviews — a service NQR also provides. After some internal deliberations, the company now uses NQR for these services across the entire organization.
As both companies continue to evolve, our client is eager to rely on NQR for opportunities as new products and services are introduced.