In recent years, organizations—particularly those in the financial services and banking sectors—have faced increasingly complex challenges in IT Governance, Risk, and Compliance (IT GRC). The dynamic regulatory environment, emergence of new technologies, and rising operational risks demand that organizations continuously update and strengthen their IT governance instruments.
Based on KED Consulting’s experience, there are three main pain points commonly encountered in the financial sector related to IT GRC:
Organizations must continuously adapt to increasingly stringent and fast-evolving regulations and standards—from data protection and cybersecurity rules to sector-specific financial regulations. However, many institutions tend to focus solely on administrative compliance, without ensuring that these policies are effectively implemented in day-to-day operations.
Many IT GRC frameworks are designed to satisfy international standards or external audits. While this is important, such approaches often fail to reflect the real-world practices within the organization. The result is a gap between compliance documentation and operational reality.
The adoption of cloud, AI, open banking, and digital ecosystems involving third parties has expanded the IT risk landscape. Threats to data, privacy, and service availability have become more significant—and can no longer be mitigated with traditional approaches.
KED Consulting’s Structured IT GRC Framework emphasizes the importance of balancing regulatory compliance, IT risk management, and business accountability. This approach focuses on four key solution domains:
Policies and procedures are the foundation of IT GRC. However, too often they remain only as documents.
A structured approach ensures that IT policies are not only compliant with regulations but also operationally relevant. Organizations must ask themselves:
Are these policies truly operationalizable?
Do employees understand and apply them in practice?
Internal controls are the mechanisms that ensure policies are effectively implemented. They include monitoring processes, internal audits, and periodic testing. Strong internal controls enable organizations to detect weaknesses early—before they escalate into major risks. The effectiveness of controls is not merely measured by their existence, but by how quickly the organization can respond when controls fail.
In reality, no rule can be applied 100% of the time. Certain business circumstances may require exceptions, for example to meet urgent operational needs. However, without proper governance, exceptions can become dangerous “shortcuts.” Organizations must therefore establish a clear process for documenting, reviewing, and approving exceptions, while ensuring that their risk impact is well understood and managed.
Every identified weakness—whether discovered through audits or incidents—must be followed up with mitigation projects. These are not merely technical tasks, but structured initiatives that build cross-functional accountability to ensure risks are truly addressed. Effective mitigation projects should:
Track progress,
Measure success, and
Link results back to business goals and regulatory compliance.
For banks and financial service providers, IT GRC review and enhancement cannot be reactive. Regulations will continue to evolve, IT risks will keep increasing, and business practices will constantly change. Therefore, organizations must:
Adopt a continuous improvement cycle to review and update policies, controls, and mitigations.
Build a real connection between compliance documents and operational practice.
Strengthen cross-functional accountability—across IT, risk, and business units.
With a structured approach, IT GRC becomes more than a compliance function—it becomes a strategic enabler to strengthen organizational resilience, protect data and assets, and sustain long-term corporate objectives.