Governance, board effectiveness and succession planning for a commercial and retail bank
Background
Our client is a commercial and retail bank seeking under a regulator mandated review.
The scope of our work was mandated by the regulator and required a Skilled Person to report on the general governance and oversight arrangements at the firm, the effectiveness of the Board and the culture it was instilling in the organisation.
Our work
We assembled a multi-disciplinary team that could cover the broad range of subject matter knowledge required, including: expertise in governance, board dynamics, culture, assessment methodologies, corporate banking, risk and controls and compliance. This included:
- Reviewing documentation relating to governance structures (e.g. board and committee composition, management responsibility map, statement of responsibilities, board agendas, board minutes etc.) and practices as well as culture
- Observing (live) board and board committee meetings over a period of several months
- Interviewing board members and executives (using a semi-structured interview technique which allowed for consistency of data gathering and flexibility to probe areas observed in the meetings)
- Assessing C-suite executives for suitability to hold senior management functions (SMF) – as part of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Senior Manager and Certification Regime (SMCR)
Outcomes
Our approach enabled us to focus on uncovering root causes of the numerous challenges the firm faced across many different areas and led to:
- Changes to the design of governance (board and committee membership)
- Substantive changes to the composition of the Board
- Confirmation or otherwise of suitability of SMF holders
