In conclusion, technology is already proving to be a strong enabler and pertinent use of it will only empower enterprises to tackle disruptions to their businesses – from both everyday challenges as well as the once in a century challenge like the pandemic – and ensure greater resilience while providing a structure for achieving enterprise objectives.
The primary focus of GRC (Governance, Risk, & Compliance) is to strategize for the management of an organization’s overall governance, enterprise risk management, and compliance. GRC helps to inculcate fair business practices into everyday work processes.
GRC has grown into gaining supreme importance as the risk factors in organizations/institutions have become complex and more severe than ever before. As the GRC landscape is rapidly changing, newer and diverse risks have been emerging.
With the regulatory landscape also fast-changing, the inability to address new risks can lead to higher, more frequent penalties for organizations, affecting their reputation and long-term growth prospects. For financial services, financial risk has emerged as one of the prime concerns. Ever-increasing procedural complexities cause enterprise-wide operational risks. On one hand, while IT risk management has become critical for companies as there are increasing threats in the technology landscape, on the other hand, Cyber security risks are also raising concerns with things like distributed and remote working gaining traction. Operational & Data privacy are the newer and widely discussed risk categories. Risks of shorter business cycles and disruptions of many kinds are also creating business continuity risks, which cannot be ignored.
Considering the financial sector, there is a need to integrate the varied elements of GRC. The activities include:
- Tracking: Staying on top of the changing risk landscape and communicating them on time to relevant stakeholders.
- Ownership: Supervising and effecting risk management through designated risk champions across business functions.
- Assessment: Continuous monitoring and assessment of risk mitigants to help minimize the impact.
- Automation: Automating critical activities to improve process efficiency and overcome workflow-related roadblocks.
