Imagine you are conducting a routine review of a business process and you discover that a step is being performed in a way that violates an internal policy. What would you do?

Situation

During an internship as a compliance analyst assistant, I was assigned to review the customer onboarding process for accuracy. While sampling forms, I noticed that the enhanced due diligence questionnaire for high-risk clients was often skipped because the team assumed the standard form was sufficient.

Task

I needed to address this policy violation without blaming colleagues, and to ensure the process was corrected immediately to prevent potential non-compliance with regulatory requirements.

Action

I documented the specific instances with timestamps and form IDs, then set up a meeting with my supervisor. I presented the evidence neutrally, explaining that the omission could lead to a regulatory gap. I proposed a temporary fix: a mandatory linked checklist in the system that would not allow finalization without the EDD form. I also offered to retrain the onboarding team on the correct procedure.

Result

My supervisor escalated the issue to the process owner, and the temporary checklist was implemented within a week. The long-term solution involved a system change to auto-trigger the EDD form for high-risk clients. The gap was closed, and a potential audit finding was avoided.