Customer Profile
Meridian Financial Group is a diversified financial services company operating across wealth management, commercial lending, and insurance brokerage. Headquartered in Charlotte, NC, Meridian manages $14B in assets and relies on 340+ third-party vendors spanning core banking, payment processing, cloud infrastructure, and professional services.
The Challenge
Meridian's vendor risk program was built on spreadsheets, shared drives, and manual email follow-ups. Their three-person risk team spent an average of six weeks completing each vendor assessment — from questionnaire distribution to final risk rating. With OCC heightened expectations and FFIEC guidance tightening, regulators flagged Meridian's vendor oversight as a material weakness during their 2024 examination.
The specific pain points included:
- No centralized view of vendor risk posture across business lines
- Assessment questionnaires were inconsistent — each analyst used different templates
- Evidence collection required dozens of email threads per vendor
- Remediation tracking was non-existent; findings were documented but never closed
- Board reporting took 2 weeks of manual data aggregation each quarter
The Solution
Meridian deployed ThirdSentry across all three business lines within 60 days. The platform addressed every gap identified in their regulatory examination:
AI-Powered Assessment Engine
Standardized questionnaire templates aligned to OCC, FFIEC, and PCI-DSS requirements. AI auto-scored vendor responses and flagged inconsistencies, reducing the manual review burden on analysts.
Vendor Portal
Vendors self-serve questionnaire responses and evidence uploads through a dedicated portal, eliminating email-based coordination entirely. Average vendor response time dropped from 3 weeks to 4 days.
Automated Remediation Tracking
Every assessment finding generates a remediation item with SLA tracking, owner assignment, and escalation rules. No more findings lost in email threads.
Executive Dashboard
Real-time risk posture across all vendors with board-ready reporting. The quarterly data aggregation cycle was eliminated — reports generate on demand.
Inherent Risk Scoring
AI-driven risk profiling at vendor onboarding prioritizes which vendors require full assessments vs. abbreviated reviews, focusing the team's capacity on the highest-risk relationships.
The Results
Within 90 days of deployment, Meridian's vendor risk program was transformed:
- Assessment turnaround reduced from 6 weeks to 5 days — an 88% reduction in cycle time
- 100% of critical and high-risk vendors assessed within regulatory SLA
- Remediation closure rate improved from 34% to 91% — findings are now tracked to resolution
- Board reporting reduced from 2 weeks to same-day generation
- Passed 2025 OCC examination with zero vendor risk findings
- Risk team capacity freed to focus on strategic vendor governance instead of data collection