Governance
Governance is the machinery that decides who can do what with your money and your data, and who answers when it goes wrong. It is dull to read and it is the reason a bank is safe to use.
Board and committees
The board sets appetite and appoints the senior manager responsible for each regulated activity. Risk, audit and remuneration committees report separately so that no single group marks its own homework.
Three lines, in practice
The business owns the risk it takes, a second line sets and tests the limits, and an internal audit function reports to the audit committee without passing through management on the way.
Access to customer records
Staff permissions are role-based and least-privilege: a support agent can see what a case needs and nothing else, and every view of a customer record is written to an audit trail that the person can ask to see.
Conduct and complaints
Complaints are logged centrally, root causes are reported to the board, and a pattern that repeats is treated as a product defect rather than a run of unhappy customers.
Governance documents, committee memberships and the complaints procedure are available on request.