Tracking Vendor Due Diligence Material

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How does your financial institution manage the tracking of vendors’ due diligence materials? Is there a centralized repository for these documents, or are they merely stored in folders on your computer? It’s important to note that Strunk’s Vendor Manager software offers a hosted solution designed to help financial institutions consolidate vendor due diligence materials into a single, central location.

Vendor due diligence materials include essential information about a vendor’s corporate history, financial status, legal structure, compliance record, operational capabilities, and potential risks of the partnership. A centralized repository for these materials removes the need to consult multiple sources, ensuring the information remains accurate, up-to-date, and easily accessible.

Key benefits of having a centralized repository:

  • Enhancing data accuracy and consistency: By keeping all due diligence documents in one location, the risk of conflicting or outdated information is reduced, ensuring that everyone utilizes the most reliable details for each vendor. This approach allows departments involved in vendor selection to share information effortlessly and collaborate on materials, ensuring everything stays current.
  • Streamlined review process: With all due diligence materials in one accessible location, reviewing vendor information is more straightforward, saving time and effort. This arrangement also simplifies the provision of necessary documentation during audits for your vendor management program.

Strunk’s Vendor Manager software establishes a centralized repository for your financial institution’s due diligence materials, granting swift access to all pertinent vendor information and significantly speeding up the decision-making process. Check out our site to learn more: https://strunkaccess.com/compliance-software/#vendors.

Why use Strunk’s Issue Manager instead of Excel

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How does your financial institution keep track of internal and external audit findings, customer complaints, and comments from regulators that require corrective action? Many financial institutions use Excel spreadsheets to monitor these outstanding issues. It’s no surprise that financial institutions rely on Excel for these tasks, as it remains one of the most widely used business software programs out there. Most employees find Excel convenient and believe it meets their needs for issue tracking.

Many financial institutions may not be aware of the risks and downsides of using Excel as their main document for tracking audit findings, customer complaints, and regulatory comments. Excel currently lacks a clear visual history of file updates, requiring users to save multiple versions of a file to track changes. This leads to numerous duplicate copies, time wasted on figuring out the latest version, and a high risk of lost data. Furthermore, the process can be disrupted when key personnel responsible for the Excel spreadsheet leave the business without providing proper instructions. As regulators demand complete audit trails and transparency, Excel cannot meet this requirement. Another issue with Excel is its lack of access control tracking, which can lead to unauthorized access, data corruption, or accidental deletion. Managing Excel spreadsheets is a manual, time-consuming, and highly inefficient process. With labor costs constantly rising, financial institutions are beginning to understand that increasing employee productivity by using efficient software solutions can significantly impact their bottom line.

Strunk’s Issues Manager module can help your financial institution to solve the problem of tracking audit findings, customer complaints, and regulatory comments in Excel. Strunk’s hosted solution allows financial institutions to track issues that arise and assign responsibility to associates within the organization. Issues Manager also enables you to attach documents, assign priority and due dates, and track the status of the issues within the solution, while generating reports for auditors or external use. Contact Strunk if you would like to automate your issue tracking in a secure environment that creates full audit trails.

Strunk’s Issue Manager software simplifies issue resolution & improves risk management

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Managing issues can be a cumbersome task for financial institutions, whether it’s tracking incidents, customer complaints, or audit and exam findings. The issue management process involves maintaining an issue log with action items, due dates, and responsible team members, often blurring the lines between issue management and project management. Standardizing your financial institution’s issue management program can improve efficiency and strengthen your Enterprise Risk Management program. Strunk’s Issue Manager software can quickly and efficiently identify and resolve issues for financial institutions.

Strunk’s Issue Manager Software:

• Define the issue, the source it came from, and who reported it.
• Details of the issue and attach any supporting document that you would like to support your issue (ex: audit findings, issue report, incident report or customer compliant report).
• Ability to prioritize issues to address the highest priorities first, moving down the line to the less urgent ones.
• Create a corrective action plan to develop the action items management will take to correct the issue, along with due dates and responsible team members.
• Track the issue’s progress as it moves toward resolution while creating a due date for it.
• Receive notification as the progress in correcting the issue within the agreed-upon timeframe.
• Create reports for internal use, auditors, and external use to help ease the remediation process.

Strunk’s Issue Manager software simplifies issue resolution, improves risk management, and enhances business operations.

Strunk at ICBA LIVE 2024

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This year’s ICBA LIVE, hosted by the Independent Community Bankers Association, was held in sunny Orlando, Florida from March 14-17 at the Orlando World Center Marriott. In addition to various roundtable discussions, ThinkTECH presentations, and Learning Labs attendees enjoyed visiting with vendors in the Marketplace.

Strunk was excited to meet with so many bankers, discussing a variety of topics important to them today. Many banks are taking advantage of Strunk’s Pricing Manager solution, a full-featured loan and deposit pricing application. Banks are able to deploy a tool to all lenders to ensure they are armed to price loans profitably and consistently based on each bank’s target profitability objectives. It also provides the ability to understand the details of relationship profitability so that better pricing decisions can be made. Pricing Manager is affordable, easy to implement and use, and it will increase the bank’s net interest income by 25-50 basis points.

Many banks are understandably concerned about lost fee income, so another hot topic of conversation was Secure Checking. The program will allow banks to implement a monthly maintenance fee on each checking account and not worry about consumer backlash. It’s a tried and true program that works every time – at literally hundreds and hundreds of FIs across the country. Through the program, fee income increases at least $50 per account, per year. These consumer demanded features are supported by a company that has been in this business for 50 years and Strunk has been working with them for a decade.

Strunk continues to provide value-added SaaS solutions that help community banks increase profitability, while controlling operating expense. In addition to these offerings, Strunk discussed their overdraft service and best-in-class governance, risk and compliance solution, Risk Manager.

For more information on Pricing Manager, Secure Checking or Strunk’s other solutions, visit  https://strunkaccess.com/ or contact Strunk at info@strunkaccess.com.

Strunk at the ABA’s Conference for Community Bankers 2024

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This year, the American Bankers Association hosted the Conference for Community Bankers in San Antonio, Texas at the beautiful JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country from February 11-14. Attendees kicked the event off with a golf tournament, some educational sessions and once again, celebrated the Super Bowl with a Big Game Tailgate Party!

Speakers discussed topics such as how the FHLBs and the ABA work together most effectively, strategies for retaining customers, how to outperform peers and the state of our commercial lending markets. The highlight of the general sessions was quite possibly James Olson, a former Chief of Counterintelligence for the CIA who shared insights into his undercover career. Bankers and vendors alike enjoyed a reception on Monday evening celebrating Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

Strunk was excited to have the opportunity to show their newest solution, Pricing Manager, to clients as well as many new faces. Pricing Manager is a full-featured loan and deposit pricing solution that will provide banks with the ability to set loan and deposit pricing consistently and profitably. Commercial loans can be priced consistently by every lender, creating options for customers that all achieve the bank’s profitability targets. Additionally, rate sheets for consumer loans, residential mortgage loans, and deposits were introduced. These rate sheets can easily be created also based on established profit objectives. Not only will Pricing Manager drive consistent achievement of profitability targets – it will also help banks win more quality deals!

Strunk’s goal is to continually provide value-added SaaS solutions that help community banks increase profitability, while controlling operating expense. In addition to their latest offering, Strunk highlighted their overdraft service and best-in-class governance, risk and compliance solution, Risk Manager.

For more information on Pricing Manager or any of Strunk’s other solutions, visit https://strunkaccess.com/ or contact Strunk at info@strunkaccess.com.

How can Strunk’s software help with your vendor management program?

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Regulators take compliance with vendor management regulations seriously due to the critical role third-party vendors play in delivering products and services. Using third-party services can increase the risk of a banking organization, but this does not mean that the organization can neglect its responsibility to perform all activities in a safe and sound manner. It is the responsibility of the organization to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, including those related to consumer protection and security of customer information. What exactly are the Regulators looking for in a Vendor Management program? Regulators will look for your program to have structure, be consistent, and have accountability. Strunk’s software can be your perfect solution to achieve your objectives. Let’s take a closer look at how it can help you.

The first thing that needs to be accomplished is to have the right structure for your program. The financial institution needs to have a well-documented policy describing how your board and senior management intend to execute vendor management. Strunk’s Policy Manager Software can provide your financial institution with a structured, centralized single source of truth for your organization’s policies. You can also use Policy Manager to document all of your procedures, including links to policies, ownership responsibilities, automated change logging, and multiple file attachments. If your financial institution does not currently have a vendor management documented policy, Strunk can start you off with our recommended standard policy.

Next, the financial institution must establish a consistent framework for implementing the policy that was established. Strunk’s Vendor Manager software can streamline and standardize the entire process. The Vendor Manager software is designed to transform a complicated process into a more organized and self-documenting workflow. It helps to streamline and automate the process, making it more efficient and easier to manage.

The financial institution must be accountable for its vendor management program. Strunk’s Risk Assessor software can assist in identifying what risk your organization must consider with your Vendor Management program, while also mapping what controls and procedures are in place for that risk.

Preparing for your next Vendor Management exam is crucial for your financial institution. Strunk offers several tools that can help you in this regard. While regulators do not expect perfection, they do expect progress and performance. By utilizing Strunk’s software and expertise, you can ensure that you are up-to-date and organized for your upcoming exam. This will make exam time much easier.

Save with Strunk’s Effective Risk Management Tools

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Strunk is best known for our fee income improvement programs, including Overdraft Privilege, Rewards Checking and Value Checking. Strunk is also well known for assisting community financial institutions with their risk management and compliance processes using our software.

Strunk offers five comprehensive, easy-to-use, and affordable compliance management tools:

Risk Assessor helps prepare comprehensive risk assessments consistent with regulatory or other requirements, in days, not weeks.

Policy Manager organizes all policy documents into a single database, mapped to the relevant standards and control procedures.

Controls Manager schedules tests of policy compliance and tracks test results.

Vendor Manager is a specialized tool for managing vendor risk that standardizes risk assessment methodology and organizes all vendor related documentation.

Issues Manager is a centralized database for tracking all compliance issues and incidents across your entire organization.

According to Dan Roderick, CEO, “Strunk’s Risk Manager solution brings efficiency to the process and allows our clients to focus on their highest areas of risk. The solution is comprehensive but simple to use, which is something I wish I’d had access to in my days as a banker.”

All our tools are securely and reliably hosted with Amazon AWS, making them available on a variety of devices from anywhere. Risk Manager facilitates remote work and will greatly enhance your internal control and risk management processes and save time – all for one low annual fee.

If you are paying another vendor an annual fee for any one of these tools today, invest just 30 minutes to review our solution suite. We can add valuable services – and may be able to SAVE you money as well! Check out our tools today: https://strunkaccess.com/compliance-software/

Vendor Management Breakdown

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Over the years, banking partnerships with FinTechs have grown in number and complexity. Third-party risk management has become a growing focus for supervisory and enforcement agencies in recent years. To facilitate the increase in such relationships, the Board of the Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), have released a final joint guidance to assist institutions in mitigating risks linked with third-party relationships.

Although it is stated that the guidance does not have the authority to impose new requirements on banking organizations, each agency will still assess their supervised banking organizations’ risk management of third-party relationships as part of their regular supervisory procedures. This includes evaluating the level of risk and the effectiveness of risk management to ensure that all activities comply with relevant laws and regulations and are conducted in a secure and sound manner. The guidance also emphasizes that corrective measures, such as enforcement actions, may be taken by the agencies if there are any violations of laws and regulations or unsafe banking practices by the banking organization or its third party.

Strunk’s Vendor Manager software has undergone a review to ensure that it aligns with the Final Guidance for efficient management of third-party relationships. Strunk has proposed some areas of improvement to enable our clients to clearly outline the structure of each third party and identify potential risks, as well as the appropriate measures to manage them easily. With our latest release on September 6th, 2023, you can view the new upgrades that have been added.

Here, you can find a document comparing the Interagency Guidance of Third-Party Relationships: Risk Management with Strunk’s Vendor Manager software. https://app.strunkaccess.com/v2/document/347

Update on Agencies Final Guidance on Third-Party Risk Management

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On Tuesday, June 6, 2023, Federal bank regulators issued final guidance outlining the guidelines and factors to consider when managing third-party relationships for financial institutions. The joint final guidance was issued by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Planning, due diligence and third-party selection, contract negotiation, ongoing monitoring, and termination are the steps in the life cycle of third-party relationships that are covered by the final guidance on risk management strategies. The final guidance was released to hopefully improve consistency in the agencies’ supervisory approaches to third-party risk management and replaces each agency’s previous general third-party guidance. Based on the agencies’ consideration of public comments on the proposed guidance announced in July 2021, the final guidance has been simplified and made clearer. The final guidance rescinds and replaces the FDIC’s Guidance for Managing Third-Party Risk issued in FIL-44-2008. The FDIC also withdraws the 2016 proposed guideline on Third Party Lending (FIL-50-2016), which was released for comment on July 29, 2016, because the final guideline covers all third-party interactions, including lending arrangements. The final guidelines want to make clear that business relationships with third parties engaging in lending, payment or deposit activities for the financial institution are evaluated by the financial institution using both the third-party risk management guidance and various risk management processes and rules that apply to the lending and deposit relationship.

The joint guidance was designed to assist financial institutions, especially community banks, in matching their risk management procedures with the type of risk profile of their third-party partnerships, while giving example scenarios. The agencies intend to start working with community banks right away and to create more tools soon to help them manage important third-party risks. Like previous guidance, the complexity, size and size of the financial institution, as well as the nature of the third-party relationship, are all factors considered in the third-party risk management. The final guidance continues to make it clear that if a financial institution uses a third-party, then the third-parties risk falls back to the organization and the financial institution is responsible that the third-party performs all activities in a safe and sound manner.

The guidance also states that the agencies’ routine supervisory procedures will include examining a financial institution’s third-party relationship risk management measures. Supervisors typically evaluate a financial institution’s management’s capacity to supervise and manage its third-party relationships, as well as the impact of those relationships on the bank’s risk profile. They also carry out transaction testing to assess the third party’s performance and compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

In creating and executing risk management procedures for all phases of the life cycle of third-party partnerships, financial institutions may consider the sound principles provided by the guideline, which supports a risk-based approach to third-party risk management. A vendor management software can help with that and also help a company operate more efficiently. A vendor management software assists financial institutions to build better vendor relationships by improving engagement and transparency while reducing risks. Having the most comprehensive solution like Strunk’s Vendor Manager software helps streamline your end-to-end vendor due diligence workflow.

 

Strunk’s Document Library and Customizable Letter Options

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Access to a document library that includes Strunk’s recommended, compliant letters and policies is included with Strunk’s hosted ODP Manager software. Users can log in and review the recommended documents and compare them to letters currently set up in the ODP Manager software.

The hosted software makes it easy to log in and review active letter templates, even if you do not have any letters due. When you view the Collection, Custom, or Ad Hoc letter template, a sample PDF of the letter displays automatically using one of the accounts imported from your daily extract file. The PDF can be printed or saved so that you can easily compare it to Strunk’s recommended templates in the software Library. ODP Admins are able to make any necessary changes to letter templates or can request that updates are made by Strunk Technical Support.

Though Strunk provides the recommended letter content there are also customizable letter template options which will allow you to update the letter appearance to match other letters sent by your institution.

Header and footer information can be set up in ODP Manager to allow users to print on plain paper instead of letterhead. The hosted software also includes the flexibility to store signatures for each of your users. The signatures would then print automatically when the letter is generated – no need to sign letters! The same signature can be set up for all letters or the signature can change based on the user generating the letters, the letter type, or the letter template.

ODP Manager can update the contact name or phone number displayed on letters based on the account’s assigned branch. This allows you to provide your customers with the most appropriate contact information – whether customers contact a central location or their local branch to discuss the Overdraft Privilege program.

Please contact Strunk Support at support@strunkaccess.com with any questions or to find out more about the software Library or letter template options.

 

An independent certified public accountant has examined Strunk’s operations and found them to be in compliance with the AICPA’s Trust Service Principles. It was determined that Strunk meets the Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy criteria for SOC 2 established by the AICPA.