ESG frameworks are guidelines, metrics, and criteria that allow companies and investors to develop sustainability reporting standards and evaluate environmental, social, and governance risks. Common ESG frameworks include the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), and Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Over the last decade, ESG performance has become an important metric to evaluate an organization’s operational sustainability.

In today's financial landscape, businesses are interconnected, and outsourcing and partnerships are necessary—meaning managing risks associated with third-party vendors is pivotal. Whether you're a small community bank or a multinational financial conglomerate, mastering third-party risk management is vital to safeguarding your institution against the vulnerabilities that third parties can introduce.

As your business grows and you work with more third-party vendors, you need to ensure security and stability across your entire vendor supply chain. With hundreds, if not thousands, of external vendors, it can be daunting and time-consuming for teams to compile all the necessary data about each vendor, evaluate the vendor's impact, and take action to ensure compliance with organizational needs.

DMARC, which stands for "Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance," is an email authentication protocol that protects your domain from domain spoofing and impersonation attacks. Implementing a DMARC policy in your domain's DNS records helps to protect your email recipients from spam and malware, while maintaining your domain and brand credibility.

Modern business is synonymous with third-party relationships. Organizations now rely on external providers for critical services and outsource essential responsibilities to improve operational efficiency and cut costs. The benefits of third-party vendors are clear, but so are the risks. The average organization has expanded and digitized its supply chain over the last few years while simultaneously increasing its risk profile and subjecting itself to new levels of risk.

Utilizing third-party vendors can provide numerous benefits, such as cost savings, expertise, and efficiency. Still, it also introduces a range of risks that can significantly impact an organization's security, compliance, and overall operational integrity. Vendor Risk Assessments allow organizations to understand and manage these risks, making them a vital risk management tool during procurement, initial onboarding, and the vendor lifecycle.

It’s not a matter of if your organization will face a cyber threat, but when. Cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated, and maintaining robust cybersecurity defenses has never been more critical. However, many organizations struggle to allocate appropriate funding for cybersecurity budgets, seeing them as a grudging necessity rather than a strategic investment.

Identity and access management (IAM) is a field of cybersecurity focused on managing user identities and developing access controls to protect critical computer networks. The specifics of an IAM policy will vary across organizations and industries. However, the main goal of all IAM initiatives remains the same: guaranteeing only approved users and devices access resources for appropriate reasons at proper times.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is a framework that holistically assesses the sustainability of a business or investment. Investment groups, business continuity planners, enterprise risk management personnel, and third-party risk management (TPRM) programs utilize ESG to manage sustainability risks.

Forming partnerships with new vendors can be a complicated and risk-intensive process for any organization. The best way to manage the risks associated with new partnerships and establish successful vendor management practices is to create an effective vendor onboarding policy. Organizations create vendor onboarding policies to standardize the onboarding process, streamline vendor evaluation, and manage vendor risk and vendor compliance.