2026 Controls practices: Trends, insights and industry progress

Paper - March 2026

Effective controls are essential to managing operational and non-financial risk (ONFR), particularly in today’s more complex and volatile environment, marked by increased third-party reliance, rapid technological change and evolving regulation. As a result, firms are under growing pressure to redesign their control environments and raise expectations around control effectiveness and oversight. 

This paper explores and extends the findings from our 2021/2022 Controls Practices Paper, drawing on three main sources: Our 2025 discussion on Control Library Practice, the 2025 survey, and a follow-up roundtable with survey participants.

It sets out how control practices are evolving, including how firms are:

• Developing and maintaining control libraries 
• Prioritising and standardising controls 
• Using real-time analysis 
• Connecting and leveraging controls data with other framework components and for additional risk and oversight activities

Contacts: