Client stories
Evidence from engagements, told without marketplace stars.
These notes come from compliance and operations leads who hired us for concrete audit work. Names of firms stay withheld where confidentiality agreements require it.
They caught that our refunds dual-control existed on paper but not on the Saturday shift. The finding was blunt, and we fixed the roster before our bank partner’s visit.
The memorandum took longer than I hoped because we were slow with document access. Once files arrived, the sampling was meticulous and the severity ratings felt fair.
Sitting through alert cases with their auditor changed how our analysts write dispositions. We still disagree on one medium finding about cash-out timing, but the walkthrough itself was worth the calendar space.
Investor questions about reconciliations stopped looping after we cleaned the folders they flagged. The scorecard was shorter than a full audit and that was the point.
Extended story: clearing a settlement suspense pile
A mid-sized acquiring partner in southern Taiwan approached us six weeks before a banking partner’s control questionnaire. Their suspense account had grown across three month-ends; operations believed most items were timing differences.
During the Payments Control Audit we aged the break list and sampled merchant refunds posted after cut-off. Twelve of forty sampled items lacked a second reviewer, and four recycled across cycles with the same free-text note. The memorandum rated the dual-control gap high and the ageing practice medium.
The client reassigned Saturday coverage, introduced a reason-code list, and invited us back for a narrow re-sample of the following month’s breaks. The re-sample is a separate engagement; we do not fold “free follow-ups” into the original fee.
Another case: override trails in an instalment book
A consumer lender preparing a capital raise asked for a Lending Portfolio Review focused on underwriting overrides. Sampled files showed approvals above policy thresholds with chat screenshots instead of dual sign-off. We recommended a freeze on undocumented overrides until a signature workflow existed—a recommendation their credit committee adopted for thirty days while they rebuilt the trail.
One founder noted that the finding felt uncomfortable in the data room; they disclosed it early rather than hoping diligence would miss it. That choice belongs to the client; our role ends at clarity.
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