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Smaller financial institutions know how to hold their own. The big banks will never come close to what smaller organizations can offer in customer service and relations. However, because of limited resources, smaller institutions are typically at a sharp disadvantage when competing with the big dogs. We’re aware of this, and we’re on your side. Here are a couple of tools that can help level the playing field.

The Tools You Need

Vendor Management

When tackling vendor management for any size institution, a comprehensive and tailored approach can make all the difference. But tools like this are often out of reach for the smaller institutions. That’s where this vendor management tool comes in.
The AffirmX Vendor Management Solution is a comprehensive project management program designed to provide your financial institution with the documentation tools and guidance it needs delivered right through the AffirmX Risk Intel Platform.
The Vendor Management Solution offers quite a bit of help. Check it out:

  • A secure cloud-based storage system for all vendor contracts, reports and due diligence documentation with individual file folders for each vendor;
  • A customized Customer dashboard that displays pending and upcoming vendor due diligence tasks, alerts and notifications;
  • A Request for Proposal (RFP) guide to facilitate the development of RFPs for the more critical vendor relationships;
  • A checklist for vendor contract reviews;
  • An online product/service risk assessment questionnaire that produces a written risk assessment document;
  • A vendor selection questionnaire that produces a written vendor decisioning document;
  • An online work flow management tool for each vendor that provides prompts for due diligence documentation, such as financial statements, audit reports, insurance certificates, user references, etc., with customizable due dates and assignment responsibilities;
  • An online vendor risk assessment questionnaire that produces a written risk assessment report;
  • Assistance with securing due diligence documentation for high risk vendors;
  • An online vendor monitoring questionnaire that produces a written vendor monitoring report;
  • An online vendor assessment questionnaire triggered prior to contract renewal that produces a written report to document the renewal or termination decision; and
  • Vendor status reports for all managed vendors and a comprehensive detailed report reflecting all vendor management activities for each vendor in the system.

Here’s a video with a walk-through of how this tool works. And click here to request more info.

cyberCybersecurity Risk Assessment

What’s one thing you can count on making headlines every day? Cybersecurity issues and breaches. And it’s no secret that financial institutions are often criminals’ favorite targets. You may have procedures and protections in place, but now you need to justify your level of preparedness to examiners. Here’s an easy way to do that.
Delivered through AffirmX’s online Risk Intel Platform, the AffirmX Cybersecurity Risk Assessment Tool is designed to help you identify your institution’s cybersecurity risks and level of preparedness to address those risks.
A smart questionnaire guides you through the FFIEC Inherent Risk Profile, assessing how each of your products and services affect your institution’s risk profile. It also guides you through the FFIEC Cybersecurity Maturity Assessment, which identifies risks and determines their cybersecurity maturity. Responses are applied to AffirmX’s risk-scoring algorithm to assign risk ratings to each category of the assessment.
Those responses and scores feed a comprehensive, written report that allows you to easily identify specific areas and levels of risk and to identify whether your incident response programs and internal controls are appropriate to address those levels of inherent risk.
The tool identifies the factors that contribute to your institution’s overall cyber risk. Here’s how:

  • Assesses the level of your preparedness to address those risks;
  • Evaluates whether your preparedness is appropriately aligned with your risk profile;
  • Determines the risk management practices and controls that could be improved or further actions that could be taken to reach the desired level of preparedness; and
  • Enhances your overall risk management strategy
  • In addition, it provides your institution:
  • On-demand access to its Cybersecurity Risk Assessment questionnaire;
  • Calculates risk scoring for each category identified in the FFIEC self-assessment tool;
  • Creates Comprehensive and risk-coded Cybersecurity Risk Assessment report that you can generate upon completion of the questionnaire; and
  • Offers online storage vault to retain the electronic version of your Cybersecurity Risk Assessment.

Check out this video walk-through to learn more about this tool. This page is where you can request more info.