Fortrex Technologies Introduces Compliance Information Exchange VendSure [Professional Services Close – Up]

Fortrex Technologies, a provider of trusted security and risk management services and solutions, announced the official launch of the VendSure, a financial industry compliance information exchange.

According to a release, VendSure brings vendors and financial institutions together in a secure, online central compliance information repository. Using VendSure, information is exchanged and updated between financial institutions and their vendors, reducing the compliance burden for all parties.

According to Doug Ochs, Fortrex Technologies' President, "An average financial institution utilizes hundreds of vendors while large institutions deal with thousands. Because the burden of collecting and then analyzing due diligence data is so great, many institutions have to pick and choose which vendors to review, simply due to the institution's lack of resources."

"Our tremendous knowledge in information security and risk management consulting combined with our extensive third-party risk management experience truly puts us in a unique position to benefit institutions and vendors," said Ochs. "Multi-tiered service levels allow VendSure customers to receive document mappings, expert analysis, and recommendations. We are excited to offer VendSure, as it enables institutions to be more effective by focusing on risk mitigation."

Fortrex noted that a VendSure trial was conducted earlier in the year with a select group of VendorPoint clients. Some had experience with using other due diligence gathering services. To Cora Zumbrun, Operations Systems Administrator at First Interstate Bank in Billings, Montana, having due diligence documentation stored on a secure portal and receiving automated notification emails when new documents become available is what she finds most appealing. "Having Fortrex Technologies gather and track our vendors' due diligence documents has given me more time to focus my attention on creating vendor/product training for our Vendor Risk Managers," says Zumbrun.

Of course, this is not problem unique to the financial institutions. According to Ochs, "Vendors that service the financial industry feel the pain in this process too. We know from our own experience as a vendor to the financial community that when every client you serve requires access to your due diligence data, it can place a significant burden on your organization. Through VendSure, both institutions and vendors become much more efficient - I'm sure participating vendors won't mind telling prospective clients that it'll be easier doing business with them than it will a competitor."

From a vendor perspective, the challenge of repeatedly providing due diligence documentation is a compliance burden that is very time consuming. Fortrex added that VendSure participating vendors securely upload compliance documents directly to VendSure, thereby sharing their compliance information with pre-approved VendSure subscribers. This streamlines due diligence and promotes collaboration between vendors and financial institutions. VendSure provides the automated notifications to approved institutions that updated documents have been posted and are available, ensuring immediate knowledge of and access to up-to-date compliance information.

The First National Bank in Sioux Falls is one of the first participating vendors. "We are frequently asked to fulfill vendor management document requests for our customers. We found VendSure to be very user friendly! The instructions were very clear and the document uploading process was efficient," says Kathy A. Redinius, Vice President and Network Finance and Operations Director at The First National Bank in Sioux Falls. As a VendSure participant, The First National Bank in Sioux Falls can login to VendSure one time, upload documents, and VendSure will automatically notify approved VendSure subscribers that compliance documents are available. Subsequently, when new or updated documents are available, The First National Bank in Sioux Falls will simply upload them to VendSure, thereby ensuring its customers automatically receive the latest information.

More Information:

www.fortrex.com

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