Comprehensive Attestation Services for Managing Third-Party Risks

Organisations across various industries continue to outsource key activities and processes to third-party service providers for a range of business and operational reasons.

With the increasing reliance on third parties, there is a clear need, as well as regulatory requirements, for organisations to manage the risks associated with such outsourced arrangements.

Our team offers attestation and assurance services to a wide array of third-party service providers, not only in the financial services industry but also in sectors such as banking, IT, asset management, and insurance. Obtaining a SOC (Service Organisation Controls) report or a similar attestation report provides a credible solution for managing and overseeing third-party providers and their respective risk and control environments.

These reports can take the form of SOC 1, 2, or 3 reports, or a tailored attestation report, depending on your specific needs.

  • SOC1 Report: An assurance report that evaluates a service organisation's system of internal controls relevant to a user organisation's financial reporting.
  • SOC2 / SOC3 Reports: Focuses on a business's non-financial reporting controls related to the security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of its systems.
Frankie Cronin
Partner - Business Risk Services
Frankie Cronin

Why Grant Thornton

Grant Thornton performs all of its SOC and attestation services engagements in accordance with the relevant professional assurance standards – i.e. ISAE 3402 or SSAE 18 (previously SSAE 16).

Our clients attest that they derive tangible benefits from engaging a SOC assurance review and report annually. The ultimate benefit being one of protecting and enhancing the value of their business by:

  • achieving competitive advantage in the marketplace in having this control oversight mechanism in place;
  • adding weight to their business proposition and risk management capabilities in tendering for new business;
  • providing assurance to existing clients to support and protect their business relationship;
  • enhancing reputational credibility as an outsourced service provider in the market place;
  • achieving operational efficiency by reducing management time spent answering client and/or auditor queries;
  • supporting the proactive management of their control environment via identification and remediation of risk/control matters raised in the SOC report itself; and
  • satisfying assurance requirements of other parties – such as Board of Directors/banks/regulators.