Case Study · ING Bank · 2002 and 2005-2007
Senior Business Analyst · via ECL Management Consultants
The repeat engagement is the KPI.
The Brief
Two engagements, one repeat client. In 2002, the engagement focused on breadth under audit pressure: functional designs for credit risk reporting, coordination of a 24-hour electronic trading rollout across Asian and European desks, and a formal audit action point: the trading platform's documentation was incomplete, and Corporate Audit Services wanted it closed.
In 2005, the bank returned for something larger: a front-to-back transformation of credit risk reporting spanning front, middle and back office, where each function experiences the same change differently.
The Approach
The 2002 rollout was a follow-the-sun operating change touching trade capture, position keeping and reconciliation across time zones, live at launch. The audit action was closed with a 111-page controlled System Administration Manual (application security, segregation of duties, interface controls, static data, vendor SLA, business continuity, change control) through four controlled versions with a sign-off register and named ownership. The 2005-07 transformation integrated Bloomberg ETSO workflows into the reporting chain, ran workshops per constituency, and triaged defects as a shared queue rather than a per-department blame exercise. Adoption was designed, not assumed: half-day and full-day workshops, classroom groups, desk-side fast-track sessions, distance coaching, Q&A against agreed SLAs, and executive coaching, every participant receiving materials in advance.
Fig. 01 · 24-hour trading: the follow-the-sun rollout
The sun never sets on the book.
The sun never sets on the book. Recreated from the 2002 rollout's test structure.
Judgement Call
Document the system that exists, not the system on paper. Audit-remediation documentation is only worth the auditor's trust if it describes reality: actual interfaces, actual access, actual exceptions. Producing the manual meant walking the real system with the people who ran it, then writing down what was true, including the items still in progress, and saying so. The same discipline drove the 342-email demand analysis at Supermums two decades later: start from the raw evidence, not the assumed process.
What Was Delivered
- Functional designs for credit risk reporting, built against by development teams across both engagements
- A 24-hour global trading capability, coordinated across Asian and European desks and live at launch
- The 111-page controlled System Administration Manual, closing the Corporate Audit Services action point
- Bloomberg ETSO workflow integration into front-to-back credit risk reporting
- A multi-format training and executive coaching programme with SLA-backed support
- Operational efficiency improved 20% (2005-07)
The repeat
The Outcome
Continuous global trading at launch and a closed audit action in 2002; a front-to-back transformation embedded through a designed adoption programme by 2007. Tier-1 banks do not re-engage boutique consultancies out of sentiment: the 2005 engagement existed because the 2002 delivery held up for three years.