Businesses today face more threats and more significant threats than ever before, making compliance risk assessments more important than ever. These threats arise from risks related to vendors, IT, cybersecurity, and more. Financial institutions also need to identify risks associated with financial transactions and identity theft.
Understanding these threats and risks is one of the keys to not only preventing them, but also for dealing with them if and when they occur.
In addition to assessing risks to comply with laws and regulations, businesses also need to protect their companies, their customers, and their operations. Being proactive with risk management avoids potential issues before they cause serious problems. You will also be better prepared to deal with problems when they do occur, mitigating damage and protecting your assets and your brand.
However, risk assessments can be complicated, and conducting them is a lengthy and often difficult process. Working with experienced professionals can help. At RADD LLC, we help organizations embrace compliance and risk management and use robust processes to transform their businesses and find greater success.
When you are navigating compliance risk assessments, here are a few factors to look out for.
Vendor Compliance Risk Assessments
The vendors and third parties who work with your business certainly provide your company with value, but they may also expose you to risk. Therefore, whenever onboarding a new vendor, it’s critical to perform a risk assessment. This is especially true if the vendor interacts with customers or has access to sensitive data. Protecting your clients and their data is vital for protecting your brand as well as for complying with laws and regulations.
Risk assessments should also be performed periodically to ensure that all vendors keep up with expectations and no new risks have been introduced.
Start identifying and evaluating potential risks early in the process of onboarding a new vendor. For instance, think about potential conflicts of interest, possible supply chain issues, reputational risks, business continuity risks, compliance or regulatory risks, security vulnerabilities, financial or credit risks, environmental risks, social responsibility risks, and much more.
Once you have identified the risks of working with a particular vendor, evaluate the severity and impact of those risks. Rank possible risks from highest to lowest impact. How you classify a risk depends on your organization. For instance, if you are working in health care, confidentiality and privacy are crucial, since you are dealing with sensitive personal data. If you are a financial institution, maintaining compliance with regulations will be critical.
When you have a full picture of the potential risk of working with a vendor, you can then decide whether it is worth it for your organization to do so.
Selecting reliable and compliant vendors is vital for a business. Choosing the right organizations to work with adds value to your organization. However, choosing to work with a vendor that puts your company at a substantial risk may be devastating for your business.
Since the risk assessment process is often lengthy and complicated, it’s often recommended to work with an experienced expert. This is especially true, since risks can change throughout the course of a vendor relationship. Working with RADD LLC ensures that you are always on top of compliance and risk assessment issues.
IT and Cybersecurity Compliance Risk Assessments
In the modern business world, protecting your company’s information and information systems from cyber threats is critical. Not only does having data stolen or corrupted cause serious problems for your company’s day-to-day activities, but a cybersecurity breach may also result in massive damage to your company’s reputation. Many organizations do not survive a significant data breach.
First, perform a compliance-based assessment. You need to ensure your organization’s security controls meet compliance regulations, laws, and policies. Depending on your industry, there may be numerous cybersecurity regulations in place and which must be followed.
In addition to following regulations and laws, you’ll also want to identify and assess any and all cyber risks that may cause financial loss, disruption, or reputational damage. Even a relatively small IT issue or cybersecurity failure may cause a significant disruption of business.
Once you have identified these risks, they should be prioritized based on their impact.
A security risk assessment doesn’t just protect your business from the high cost and reputational hit of a breach, but it also allows you to spend more wisely. You’ll be able to direct your security budget where it delivers the best value for the organization.
It’s important to note that, much like with any other risk assessment, an IT or cybersecurity risk assessment is not a single activity that only occurs once. This is a part of an ongoing process to reduce your organization’s risk. Depending on your industry, it’s recommended to perform assessments at least twice a year or whenever there are major updates to your IT software, hardware, or processes.
Each organization has its own IT setup and processes. Therefore, each organization’s compliance and risk assessment plans will be unique. Working with the team at RADD LLC can help ensure your IT services mitigate risks and meet regulatory expectations as well as support your company’s strategic objectives. Learn more about IT services compliance and how we can help.
Automated Clearing House (ACH) Compliance Risk Assessments
Automated clearing house (ACH) transactions are low-cost and accessible, which makes them quite popular. However, as with any payment system, there are risks. When originating, receiving, or processing ACH transactions or when outsourcing these activities to a third party, there are a variety of potential risks, including theft and fraud.
For instance, if criminals obtain a bank account and bank routing numbers, they can use this information to transfer funds from the victim’s account to their own, use the account for fraudulent transactions, or steal a person’s financial identity.
ACH fraud hits financial institutions particularly hard. Since institutions are financially liable for chargebacks if they allow customers to use received funds before they clear, each instance of fraud may be incredibly costly. Financial institutions may also need to pay regulatory fines if any compliance violations are associated with an instance of ACH fraud.
Therefore, any financial institution participating in the ACH network, as well as any service providers, should ensure that they have strong systems and controls in place to mitigate risk. This risk management program should include written policies and controls. If, during the course of a compliance risk management assessment, potential vulnerabilities are determined, the organization will need to address them and determine how to mitigate those risks.
Nacha is the organization responsible for setting the rules and guidance for ACH network participants, enforcing those rules, and more. Any business collecting payments over the ACH network is required to take steps to reduce fraud, promote data security, improve usability, and ensure a safe and effective ACH network.
Identity Theft and Red Flags Compliance Risk Assessments
The Red Flags Rule requires businesses to implement and maintain a written identity theft prevention program. This plan must detect the warning signs associated with identity theft, outline the steps the organization will take to prevent those crimes, and codify what will be done to mitigate potential damage.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces the Red Flags Rule. One aspect of this rule states financial institutions are required to conduct periodic risk assessments to ensure compliance with the rule. This involves identifying potential risk factors, recognizing sources of red flags, and preventing and mitigating identity theft risks.
New red flags may emerge as technology changes, identity thieves change their tactics, or business operations change. Therefore, periodic updates to a company’s risk assessment program are necessary.
Maintaining compliance is critical. However, since circumstances change frequently and since risk assessments must be done periodically to not only ensure compliance but to also reduce the risks your organization faces, working with a trusted partner will help.
When you work with the team at RADD LLC, we will ensure that not only will your organization be compliant with regulations, but you will also gain a greater understanding of the potential risks facing your business. This knowledge will enable you to keep your organization and your clients safe, protect you from financial or reputational damage, improve your brand’s standing, and better allocate resources throughout your organization. It will also, of course, save you from being hit with costly regulatory penalties.
To schedule a consultation, learn more about how proactive risk compliance assessments can help your business, and discover what we can do to assist you in this process, please contact us today.