Description

A focused course, tailored for you

Governance Frameworks for Financial Services Managers

Build the policy ownership matrix, committee reporting cadence, and assurance mapping your board actually acts on.

The policy register looks complete on paper, but every committee cycle uncovers the same accountability gaps: owners who are listed but not engaged, attestation dates that slip, and board papers that describe governance without demonstrating it.

$199 one-time

Tailored to your situation. Access within 24 hours. 30-day money-back.

Includes a hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access, generated for your specific situation.

Why this course

For a Governance Manager at a major financial group, the structural challenge is that policy governance spans three functions (legal, risk, compliance) and at least two lines of defence, but the documentation layer rarely reflects that span accurately. The result: committee chairs ask questions the paper can't answer, audit findings repeat across cycles, and the governance manager spends the quarter between reviews chasing attestations rather than improving the framework. The fix isn't more documentation. It's a governance architecture with clear ownership logic, a committee reporting cadence that surfaces the right signals, and an assurance map the board can follow from obligation to named control owner.

What you walk away with

Design a policy ownership matrix that assigns accountability to named roles, not job titles, with an attestation cycle that holds between committee meetings.
Build a committee reporting structure that surfaces governance health signals the board chair can question rather than a status summary they cannot interrogate.
Map your three-lines-of-defence framework to specific policy domains so audit findings link to named control owners, not function-level descriptions.
Construct an APRA CPS 220-aligned governance calendar that sequences obligation reviews, attestation windows, and board reporting in a single operational cadence.
Write the governance charter section that defines escalation thresholds, so committee papers reach the right level without the governance manager deciding each time.
Produce the assurance map that connects regulatory obligations to internal controls, owners, and evidence artefacts in a format the external auditor can follow directly.

The 12 modules

Module 1. The Governance Architecture Diagnostic

Before redesigning the framework, map what exists. This module walks through the diagnostic questions that reveal where the current policy register, ownership matrix, and committee structure are misaligned. You will produce a one-page gap analysis identifying the three points where accountability breaks down in your current governance cycle, with a prioritisation logic for which gap to close first.

Module 2. Policy Ownership Logic That Survives Restructures

Policy registers fail when ownership is assigned to job titles rather than governance roles. This module covers the ownership taxonomy that separates policy author, accountable executive, and operational owner, and shows how to embed that taxonomy into the register so an org chart change does not orphan policies. You will draft the ownership assignment protocol your committee can ratify in a single sitting.

Module 3. The Attestation Cycle Architecture

Annual attestations are easy to schedule and easy to miss. This module covers the risk-weighted attestation cadence that assigns review frequency by policy criticality and regulatory obligation, and shows how to build the reminder and escalation logic into the governance calendar rather than relying on the governance manager to chase. Output: a 12-month attestation schedule template with escalation triggers.

Module 4. Three-Lines Mapping for Financial Services

The three-lines model is widely cited and rarely drawn accurately in policy documentation. This module covers how to map your policy domains to the three lines so that each policy has a named first-line owner, a second-line oversight function, and a third-line assurance scope. The mapping format produced in this module is the one external auditors ask for and governance managers rarely have ready.

Module 5. APRA CPS 220 Governance Calendar

APRA's risk management standard creates specific governance cycle obligations: board risk appetite review, ICAAP sign-off, stress testing cadence, and the annual governance review. This module sequences those obligations into a governance calendar that integrates with your committee meeting schedule, so the compliance dates drive the agenda rather than arriving as surprises. You will produce the calendar template populated with CPS 220 milestone types.

Module 6. Committee Reporting That Generates Questions, Not Nods

A board paper that summarises governance status without surfacing actionable signals produces a committee that approves rather than scrutinises. This module covers the committee paper structure that presents governance health as a set of interrogatable metrics: policy coverage, attestation completion rate, open audit findings by owner, and escalation threshold breaches. You will rewrite a generic governance update into a paper the committee chair can question.

Module 7. The Governance Charter: Escalation Thresholds and Decision Rights

The governance charter defines what the governance function decides, what it escalates, and to whom. Without it, the governance manager makes these calls individually every cycle. This module covers the decision-rights framework for governance committees, including escalation thresholds for policy breaches, owner disputes, and audit findings. Output: the governance charter section template covering decision rights and escalation logic.

Module 8. Connecting Regulatory Obligations to Internal Controls

ASIC and APRA obligations need to appear in the governance framework as named controls with named owners, not as references to legislation. This module covers the obligation-to-control mapping methodology, showing how to translate a regulatory requirement into a specific policy, a specific control owner, and a specific evidence artefact. You will map a sample APRA obligation through the full chain to a named owner and evidence document.

Module 9. The Assurance Map the External Auditor Follows

External auditors request an assurance map and governance managers frequently produce a narrative document that does not answer the question. This module covers the assurance map format that links each material risk to its policy control, the three-lines coverage, and the most recent independent assurance activity. You will produce the one-page assurance map template that answers the auditor's first three questions before they ask them.

Module 10. Governance for Outsourced and Third-Party Functions

Material outsourcing arrangements sit outside the internal governance framework but inside the regulatory perimeter. This module covers how to extend the policy ownership matrix and assurance map to cover material outsourced functions, including the oversight committee mandate, the service provider attestation protocol, and the escalation trigger when a provider's controls fall below the agreed standard.

Module 11. The Repeat Audit Finding: Root Cause and Structural Fix

When an audit finding appears in two consecutive cycles, the governance framework has a structural gap, not a documentation gap. This module covers the root-cause diagnostic for repeat findings, showing how to trace a finding back to the point in the governance architecture where ownership, attestation, or oversight broke down. You will work through a case study of a repeat finding and produce the governance design change that closes it permanently.

Module 12. The Governance Improvement Roadmap

The final module brings together the outputs from all prior modules into a sequenced governance improvement roadmap: the gap analysis, the ownership matrix changes, the calendar redesign, the committee paper template, and the assurance map. You will produce a one-page board-ready roadmap that shows the current state, the target state, and the six-month milestones, suitable for presenting to the governance committee as a standing agenda item.

How this addresses your situation

Specific modules that map to what you said you are dealing with.

Policy ownership columns pointing to departed roles or merged functions (Modules 2, 3)

Committee papers that produce approval rather than scrutiny (Modules 6, 7)

Audit findings repeating across cycles because the governance architecture, not the documentation, is the root cause (Modules 11, 4)

Regulatory obligations visible in the legal register but not traceable to named controls and owners (Modules 8, 9)

What you get with this course

Twelve written modules covering governance architecture, ownership logic, committee reporting, APRA calendar, three-lines mapping, and assurance documentation
Downloadable templates: policy ownership matrix, attestation schedule, committee paper structure, assurance map, governance charter escalation section, obligation-to-control mapping worksheet
Hand-built implementation playbook tailored to your governance environment, delivered alongside course access
Access via the Art of Service learning environment, self-paced

What you will have in hand by Day 1, Week 1, Month 1

Course access provisioned within 24 hours of purchase

Hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access

Self-paced: most governance managers complete the core modules in two to three weeks alongside their day role

Before and after

Before

The policy register exists but ownership gaps surface every committee cycle. Attestation chasing consumes the quarter between reviews. Committee papers summarise status without generating scrutiny. Audit findings repeat because the governance architecture has not changed.

After

An ownership matrix with clear accountability logic that holds between restructures. An attestation cadence driven by risk weighting, not the calendar. Committee papers structured to generate interrogatable signals. An assurance map the external auditor can follow from obligation to named control owner.

What happens if you do not address this

Governance frameworks that rely on the governance manager's knowledge rather than documented architecture become fragile at every leadership transition and every org chart change. Audit findings that repeat are a signal the board will eventually escalate. The structural fix costs less than a second repeat finding.

Who it is for

Governance Managers and Senior Governance Analysts at banks, asset managers, and diversified financial groups who are responsible for the policy framework, committee secretariat function, or the three-lines assurance map. They have accountability for the governance cycle but rarely have the framework architecture training that would let them redesign it rather than patch it.

Who this is NOT for. Compliance officers whose work is purely regulatory monitoring with no framework ownership. Risk analysts working inside a single line of defence with no committee-reporting responsibility. Governance professionals in non-financial sectors where APRA and ASIC obligations do not apply.

How it arrives

Text-based course in the Art of Service learning environment, plus downloadable templates and worked examples for every module, plus the hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access.

Time investment. Approximately 3-4 hours per module. Most participants complete the twelve modules over three to four weeks working alongside their existing governance responsibilities.

Why $199 is the right number

Consulting engagements for governance framework redesign typically run $50,000-$150,000 and produce a report the governance manager then has to implement without methodology support. This course delivers the methodology, the templates, and the implementation playbook for $199, with the governance manager doing the build in their own environment.

FAQ

Is this course specific to Australian financial services regulation?

The course is built around APRA CPS 220 and ASIC governance expectations as the primary regulatory context. The governance architecture principles apply broadly to any regulated financial institution, but the regulatory calendar and obligation mapping modules use Australian standards. If your environment is a different jurisdiction, the templates translate with substitution of the relevant prudential standard.

Do I need to involve my risk or compliance team to use the templates?

The course is designed so the governance manager can produce working drafts of all templates independently, then bring them to risk and compliance for ratification. The three-lines mapping module specifically covers how to get sign-off from each line without the mapping becoming a committee project in itself.

What if my organisation already has a governance framework that partially works?

Module 1 is the diagnostic. If you already have a framework, the diagnostic identifies the specific gaps rather than requiring a full rebuild. Most governance managers who take this course use it to address two or three structural weaknesses in an existing framework rather than starting from scratch.

30-day money-back guarantee. If after a week of working through the materials this is not what you needed, reply to the receipt email and a full refund is processed. No questions, no forms.

Within 24 hours your account in the learning environment is provisioned and the tailored implementation playbook is delivered alongside it.