Auriemma Consulting Group Introduces Marketing Operations Roundtable Amid Rising Complexity, Compliance Risks

NEW YORK, Feb. 4, 2016 -- Auriemma Consulting Group (ACG) has launched an Industry Roundtable focused on credit card marketing operations – the firm's first-ever executive group oriented toward pre-acquisition business processes and compliance risks.

Intensifying regulatory pressure, new consumer disclosure pitfalls, and the rise of digital channels have transformed how financial institutions execute marketing activities, from offer delivery and fulfillment to the rollout of new products, services, and campaigns. The Marketing Operations Roundtable, an extension of ACG's information sharing and benchmarking platform, is designed for credit card industry executives who oversee this broad and highly complex set of tasks.

"Disclosure and marketing pose major risks to financial institutions," said Jeff Tennenbaum, ACG's Director for Global Business Development. "These risks go beyond product design and strategy development and are increasingly concentrated around marketing execution, which is the roundtable's singular focus."

The traditional role of marketing operations has grown more complex with shifts in compliance risk. Beyond bringing new campaigns to market, operations teams must maintain robust controls and effective workflow management systems to ensure implementation is consistent with their organizations' strategic objectives and documented policies and procedures. Meanwhile, activities that are critical to risk management – from changes to terms and conditions to income capture and versioning – require closer collaboration with Compliance and Audit departments and stricter oversight of a broad network of vendors supporting pre-acquisition business processes.

The increasing regulatory burden has added complexity to an already intricate function. As successful implementation requires the involvement of numerous functional areas, from Legal and Compliance to Finance and Customer Service, marketing operations teams are tasked with coordinating effective internal communications across silos, preparing other departments for new campaigns, and balancing the interests of multiple stakeholders to achieve corporate goals.

"Uncovering effective corporate governance strategies is a key aspect of the roundtable's mission," Tennenbaum said. "Participants will engage in a dialogue around who owns what, who's involved, and how key decisions are made." Like other ACG groups, the Marketing Operations Roundtable offers unique access to other financial institutions, providing a holistic view of peers' organizational structures and business process ownership frameworks. ACG's industry-leading operational benchmarking will complement in-depth peer discussions and help member organizations compare key performance indicators to the competitive landscape. Members will have year-round access to custom peer group surveys administered through the consultancy's proprietary online benchmarking portal.

The Marketing Operations Roundtable is ACG's first credit card group whose organizing principle is to examine and compare operational best practices prior to when accounts or assets are booked. In 2015, the consultancy launched a Credit Operations Roundtable focused on compliance matters that accompany the point of credit decisioning and account acquisition.

The Industry Roundtables platform now spans more than 30 groups offering end-to-end coverage of the consumer lending value chain, from acquisitions through post-chargeoff recovery – including most functions in between.

"Our portfolio of Industry Roundtables continues to grow, prompted both by changes in the market and demand from existing members," Tennenbaum said. "It speaks equally to the power of our model and the quality of our team that our clients continue to engage us with requests for new ones."

About Auriemma Consulting Group

ACG is a boutique management consulting firm with specialized focus on the Payments and Lending space. We deliver actionable solutions and insights that add value to our clients' business activities across a broad set of industry topics and disciplines.

Complementary to our core consulting business, ACG facilitates a series of Industry Roundtable groups focused on a variety of industries in which clients exchange information through activities managed by ACG, comparing and analyzing industry practices and benchmarks so that each member can optimize its own performance. Founded in 1984, ACG has grown from a one-man shop to a nearly 50-person firm with offices in New York and London. For more information, contact Tom LaMagna at (212) 323-7000 or [email protected].