A modern governance strategy to support global operations

SUMMARY​

A leading global financial services company needed a way for directors and governance professionals to keep current with evolving regulations, threats, and growth opportunities in order to provide the right strategic oversight for a highly complex, and highly regulated organization. The firm has a full suite of risk and audit committees, product solutions from life services to general accident insurance, and multiple executive leadership teams, forums, consultants, and groups that all require secure, streamlined means for communicating and making decisions.​
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The company recognized the benefit of having one governance solution provider to support global corporate, subsidiary, and operational governance. Decentralized tools and systems can make a board vulnerable to security threats, knowledge gaps, and impeded decision-making. So can less-than-secure communication channels.​
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Through Diligent’s comprehensive suite of modern governance solutions, the organization has been able to realize strategic benefits for the business such as mitigating risk while supporting sustainable growth.

BACKGROUND​​

Regulatory compliance, global executive communications, and merger and acquisition activities are particularly complicated for the directors and governance professionals charged with protecting shareholder value, risk oversight and compliance. The company must coordinate compliance activities across its 600 subsidiaries with enough flexibility to accommodate local nuances, particularly as it grows. ​ ​

Concurrently, directors must also stay informed on emerging business threats, like the impact of COVID-19 on financial regulations, employment law, and travel insurance. Supervising boards and employment services and HR committees need to be looped into activities for COVID-19 response, special programs, and grant/relief initiatives. So do financial committees, from remuneration and real estate to funding and investment, straight up to the CFO’s office. ​
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Regulatory and compliance teams need to be in close communications with committees for strategy, venture investment, acquisitions, and divestitures. These teams need a contained governance ecosystem that enables them to communicate in real-time, share confidential documents, report on results, and facilitate decision-making. ​

THE SOLUTION​

Diligent Boards contains and facilitates highly confidential discussions and workflows across the organization. At the corporate board level, directors are able to share critical information with senior leadership in a secure environment—from distributing confidential documents and resources to all of its 80 CEOs to communicating with regulators like the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Other working groups collaborating on highly sensitive and confidential matters use the platform to be more efficient and effective in the way that they meet, share materials, and drive outcomes from ESG, to crisis management, acquisitions and special projects. ​

The organization uses Diligent to achieve visibility, ensure compliance, streamline reporting, and drive more uniform and effective subsidiary governance across acquired entities. The company’s governance team uses Governance Intel and Manzama to monitor the industry, competitors, and changes in the legal landscape, as well as set up highly targeted alerts for current events, such as COVID-19. Diligent heightens visibility of governance trends, regulatory updates, and changes that can impact the business.

THE RESULTS​​

A single source of truth and more consistent, unified reporting strengthens compliance across the company’s hundreds of entities. Comprehensive market intelligence and highly targeted alerts keep it ahead of evolving regulations, emerging trends, and threats to the business. ​

Diligent helps the directors get the information they need, when they need it, and accelerates the firm’s decision-making by enabling secure, streamlined communication among regulators, other directors, and executive leaders. Diligent enables more informed, timely director due diligence for merger and acquisition decisions and stronger, more consistent governance practices across acquired entities.

• Directors collaborate more efficiently and effectively with dedicated groups and automated workflows.​
• Centralized data and streamlined reporting heightens visibility across the enterprise.​
• Security at every step safeguards sensitive documents and communications.