Internal Controls Review for Financial Businesses
Your controls are only as good as they work in practice, not as they read in a policy. We review your internal controls so you know which ones actually hold, and which quietly let risk through, across Canada.
Checking the Controls You Rely On
Controls are the specific things that stop problems, an approval step, a segregation of duties, a reconciliation, a system check, a monitoring rule. On paper they look solid, but in practice some are skipped, some poorly designed, and some never really worked. We review your internal controls, whether each is designed well and actually operating.
Design and Operation Both
A control can fail two ways, it can be badly designed, or well designed but not followed. We review both. We look at whether each control is right for the risk it covers, and whether it is actually performed as it should be, by the right people. That tells you which controls truly work, so effort goes to fixing what leaves you exposed.
Review Design
We review whether each control is designed for its own risk.
Test Operation
We check whether each control is actually being performed properly here.
Find Weaknesses
We find the controls that are skipped, weak, or quietly failing.
Prioritise Fixes
We help you fix the controls that really leave you exposed.
Ready to Simplify Your Compliance?
Businesses We Support and Guide
We review internal controls for payment service providers, money services businesses, currency dealers, crypto businesses, and many of the other financial businesses that rely on sound controls under Canadian regulation.
We support banks with program design, oversight, & regulatory examination readiness.
We help credit unions meet obligations proportionate to their membership and scale.
We handle registration, renewals, reporting, & controls FINTRAC expects from you.
We cover Bank of Canada registration alongside your anti money laundering obligations.
We establish what your wallet activity triggers, then build only what applies.
We build compliance around what your product does, before volumes and questions arrive.
We register virtual currency dealers and build the reporting their activity demands.
We support financial institutions across registration, program build, and reporting duties.
Why Businesses Choose Our Review
Design Operation
We review both a control’s design and whether it is followed, so one that looks fine but fails is caught.
Practice Not
We check what actually happens, not what the manual claims, so a skipped control does not pass as working.
Focused Fixes
We point you at the controls that truly leave you exposed, so remediation goes where the real weakness sits.
Serving Businesses Across Canada
We review controls for businesses right across the whole of Canada, from Toronto and Montreal to Vancouver and Calgary, and foreign businesses checking their Canadian controls wherever they are based.
Let's Talk About Your Compliance Needs
Schedule a Free Consultation
Whether you’re starting a new MSB or need ongoing AML support, our team responds within one business day.
Controls Review Questions
Clear answers to the questions businesses ask most about reviewing the design and operation of their internal controls in Canada.
What is an internal controls review?
It is a focused review of whether your specific control activities are well designed and actually operating as they should.
Which controls do you review?
Things like approvals, segregation of duties, reconciliations, system access controls, and monitoring checks, the activities that actually stop problems.
Do you check design or operation?
Both. A control can be badly designed or well designed but not followed, so we review whether each is sound and actually performed.
How does this differ from an audit?
An audit tests your whole program against the rules. This is a focused review of the control activities themselves and how they operate.
Is this the independent effectiveness review?
No. That is the biennial whole program review Canada requires. A controls review is a more focused check you can run any time.