Publications & Resources
November/December 2010
Technology
Message from the President & CEO
WIB Service Corporation Endorsed Vendor Evaluation Process: Saving You Time and
Giving You Peace of Mind
During the past few years, the increased level of federal
regulatory scrutiny over banks’ third-party relationships has paralleled the
increased scale and complexity of the relationships themselves. This often poses
a challenge for community banks, many of which may have neither a formal vendor
management program nor a specifically designated vendor management staff
specialist. More importantly, even the smallest bank often may have dozens of
vendor relationships, any one of which can represent a major risk to the
institution.
As president & CEO of WIB and a member of the Board of
Directors of WIB Service Corporation, I have a first-hand view of the process of
selecting firms worthy of being a WIB-endorsed Value & Income Program
partner. You may know these firms as VIPs, and each one of them has gone through
a rigorous due diligence process to assure that the firm and the product or
service they provide to WIB members meet the standards that WIB members have
come to expect from these endorsed vendors. WIB Service Corporation provides
outsourced vendor management assistance to WIB banks through the vendor
evaluation process used in the selection of our VIPs. Our vendor evaluations can
help your bank reduce the time and resources you spend in your own vendor
management program.
When your bank signs up with one of our VIPs, you can trust
the quality and integrity underlying our endorsement evaluation process. WIB
Service Corporation employs a comprehensive, risk-based evaluation process
founded on not only formal vendor management policies and procedures consistent
with regulatory guidelines but also significant banker peer review. Our
evaluations involve the active participation of WIB Service Corporation board
members, staff and dedicated banker advisory committees for each product
considered for endorsement.
Our Product Advisory Committees are comprised of WIB
bankers and other industry experts knowledgeable in the product category under
consideration for endorsement. They assume three critical roles:
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They recommend the product/ service categories – and the high caliber companies offering them – to be considered for endorsement.
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The advisory committee and WIB staff employs a risk-rated review aligned with FFIEC guidelines and based upon the risk inherent in the product/service. They also ensure that the regulatory requirements are covered.
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They conduct ongoing, periodic evaluations to ensure the endorsed product continues to meet our endorsement standards.
Our contract specifications, due diligence and ongoing
monitoring requirements are risk-weighted. For those services/products in the
top risk categories, we have more robust requirements to ensure that, among
other things, the vendors are financially strong and have appropriate internal
controls in place. Finally, for “high” risk products, we engage an outside
consultant to review our evaluation. This provides one more layer of independent
evaluation in our process, not to mention one more layer of comfort for our
members that we have “crossed all the T’s and dotted all the I’s” in our
process.
The Product Advisory Committee then selects the vendor(s)
to be recommended for endorsement to the WIB Service Corporation board. The
board reviews each recommendation and selects the vendor we believe will be the
best fit for WIB members.
After endorsement, the WIB Service Corporation board and
WIB staff continually monitor and review our VIP partners to ensure ongoing
compliance as well as continued user satisfaction. Annual user satisfaction
surveys are conducted for each of the VIPs, and the frequency of our compliance
review is based on the product’s risk-rating, i.e., more frequent reviews of
critical risk-rated products.
To further assist you, we have compiled information on all
of the endorsed VIP Partners and, at the appropriate time in your own due
diligence process, will provide you with a full “vendor evaluation” package
for each VIP. We know this process will save you time and money. More
importantly, we want it to give you a confidence level – and we believe it
will – knowing that our endorsed VIP partners have already been reviewed and
“passed muster”.
If you would like more information regarding any of the WIB-endorsed
VIP partners or the endorsement process, please contact Anne Scully, WIB Service
Corporation President at anne@wib.org or (415) 352-2323 or Bill Zent, WIB Vice
President, Member Relations at bill@wib.org or
(619) 619-987-2064.I believe that, like many of your fellow WIB bank members,
you will find working with the WIB-endorsed VIPs to be a very rewarding
experience.
Nancy Sheppard
WIB President & CEO
“Our bank looks to WIB-endorsed partners because they are vetted and recommended by people we know, know the business – our banking peers.” - Sue Campo, EVP & CFO, Northwest Bank, OR, WIB Service Corporation Board Member
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