Corporate Governance in Financial Institutions Training Course

Course overview

Governance failures in financial institutions are not like governance failures elsewhere. A poorly governed manufacturer loses money for its shareholders. A poorly governed bank can lose money for its depositors, its counterparties and eventually the public, which is why supervisors take an interest in board composition, information flows and risk oversight in a way they never would in another industry.

This course covers governance in financial institutions across seven units: the principles, board structures and roles, risk oversight and audit functions, regulatory and ethical governance, sustainability and stakeholder governance, digital governance, and future direction. It is educational and is not legal, regulatory or financial advice.

What supervisors actually look at

Not the governance chart. They look at whether the board has members who can challenge the chief executive on credit or technology risk, whether the risk officer can reach the board without permission, whether the information that arrives at the board is management's summary or the underlying data, and whether an inconvenient issue raised two years ago was resolved or repeatedly deferred.

Individual accountability regimes have sharpened this considerably. In several jurisdictions, named executives carry personal responsibility for defined areas, which changes the questions asked in board packs and the appetite for signing off things nobody quite understands.

Course objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Assess why leverage and contagion change a board's duties.
• Constitute a board the supervisor will accept as suitable.
• Challenge the quality of what reaches the board.
• Oversee a risk function able to halt a transaction.
• Escalate an audit concern to the committee that owns it.
• Record statements of responsibility for each senior appointment.
• Scrutinize the evidence a supervisor reads as culture.
• Approve climate and sustainability claims backed by evidence.
• Strengthen oversight of cyber, cloud and model risk.
• Brief a board on the risk inside a new business model.

Course outline

Unit 1: Principles of corporate governance

• Agency problems, stewardship and depositor protection.
• Hard rules set against comply-or-explain discretion.
• Leverage, contagion and the public consequence of failure.
• Bank and insurer failures the board did not see.

Unit 2: Governance structures and board roles

• Collective suitability and financial expertise on a board.
• Committee delegation and what the board still owns.
• Board packs designed to reassure rather than inform.
• Dominant chief executives and weak succession planning.

Unit 3: Risk oversight and audit functions

• The Three Lines Model inside a supervised bank.
• The chief risk officer's power to stop a transaction.
• Internal audit's access to the audit committee chair.
• External audit and the supervisory dialogue around it.

Unit 4: Regulatory and ethical governance

• Fit and proper approval of a senior appointment.
• Individual accountability regimes in a supervised bank.
• Variable pay reduced by malus and clawback.
• Deferred awards and the incentives behind past misconduct.

Unit 5: Sustainability and stakeholder governance

• Climate risk the board is expected to oversee.
• Sustainability disclosure that the data cannot support.
• Stakeholder duties in conflict with shareholder returns.
• Financing decisions with reputational and political cost.

Unit 6: Digital governance in finance

• Technology risk the board is able to interrogate.
• Operational resilience when a critical supplier fails.
• Model ownership and approval before live use.
• Data privacy and the customer consent that limits use.

Unit 7: Future trends in governance

• Technology and climate expertise supervisors expect.
• Supervisory analytics and the earlier question it raises.
• Public scrutiny of executive decisions and pay.
• Embedded finance and platform partnerships at board level.

How the course is delivered

The course uses documented material: supervisory findings, enforcement notices, board minutes disclosed in inquiries, governance codes and post-failure reviews. Participants analyze what the board knew, when, and why nothing followed, and debate the governance responses in discussion. The course is educational and is not legal, regulatory or financial advice; it does not certify participants or assess any institution. Those focused on the audit and inspection side should look at Audit and Compliance for Financial Institutions.

Who should attend

• Board members and non-executive directors of financial institutions.
• Company secretaries and governance professionals in regulated firms.
• Chief risk officers, compliance heads and internal audit leaders.
• Senior executives holding allocated regulatory responsibilities.

About EuroQuest International Training

EuroQuest International Training was founded in 2015 by a team with more than 25 years of experience in professional development. We deliver over 1,000 courses and have trained more than 15,000 participants, from our head office in Bratislava, Slovakia, with hubs in Dubai, London, Barcelona, Istanbul, Vienna, Paris and Geneva. Courses are developed and reviewed by practitioners from the fields they teach.

Frequently asked questions

Does the course cover a specific supervisory regime?

It works from international governance principles and supervisory expectations, using national regimes as illustrations. Your own regulator's requirements should be confirmed locally with qualified advisers.

Is it useful for non-board members?

Yes. Risk, compliance, audit and secretariat professionals who prepare board material get considerable value from seeing how supervisors read it, and from understanding what a board actually needs.

Does the course provide legal guidance on directors' duties?

No. It is educational and is not legal advice. Duties and personal liability in your jurisdiction should be confirmed with qualified counsel.

Related courses

• Banking and Financial Institution Management
• Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) Frameworks
• Financial Crisis Management and Recovery
• Ethical Considerations in Financial Management

Register for this course

Select a city and date from the schedule above and register, or contact EuroQuest about in-house delivery for a board or governance function.