3 Lines of Defence Consulting (3LDC) is an independent consultancy firm specialising in governance, regulation, risk and audit assessment needs of its clients, in the international and UK financial services sectors. This senior management consultancy and support are tailored to the client’s requirements, be this creation or enhancement of governance and control frameworks, specialised/targeted assignments, through to on-going managed support and advisory services. Our key strength is the delivery of clear insight and effective solutions, with an understanding of practical business issues faced by senior management.

This is facilitated through 3LDC’s ability to draw upon the extensive “hands on experience” with our team of consultants/advisors who have come out of senior industry roles and our extensive partnership network. Our clients range right across the financial sector encompassing investment banking, brokering, banking, fund/wealth management sectors, as well as major service providers such as law firms and administrators. 

By way of background, in summary, the concept of 3 lines of defence has been promoted for a number of years by regulators as an effective holistic approach to identifying, mitigating and managing the risks/issues faced by financial services firms. Responsibility is placed firstly upon the business to be able to assess itself (1st line of defence). The business is then subject to a secondary level of assessment and support from the controls functions including compliance, risk and legal (2nd line of defence). Finally, there is a completely independent assessment performed by audit functions, advisers, authorities and other external bodies (3rd line of defence). 3 Lines of Defence Consulting takes this holistic concept, successfully building upon the approach to provide an effective delivery, in partnership with the senior management of its clients.