FATCA governance — roles, policies, and the annual control calendar

FATCA governance — roles, policies, and the annual control calendar

Strong governance keeps FATCA operations predictable, evidence-rich, and reviewer-ready. This guide defines roles & responsibilities, a lean policy stack, and a practical control calendar you can execute with limited resources.

Scope: Applicable to banks under Model 1 or Model 2 IGAs that act as FFIs and/or withholding agents. Aligns with RO certification expectations and reviewer practice.

1) Roles and responsibilities (RACI-lens)

  • Responsible Officer (RO): ultimate attestation; sponsors policy stack; approves issues/material failures and remediation; signs certification.
  • Tax Lead (FATCA): owns procedures, control calendar, reporting dossier, GIIN monitoring, corrections; chairs monthly FATCA Ops call.
  • Operations (Onboarding/Client Tax): runs W-8/W-9 lifecycle, renewals (T-90/60/30), change-in-circumstances, exception queue.
  • IT/Data: maintains data dictionary, mapping for 8966/local schema, export jobs, validation gates, secure evidence storage.
  • Compliance/Legal: policy governance, privacy/consent (esp. Model 2), record retention, breach/escalation protocols.
  • Internal Audit / 2nd line: independent testing per plan; tracks remediation to closure.

2) Lean policy stack (what to publish and keep)

  1. FATCA Policy (top-level): scope, roles, IGA model, governance, retention, escalation, independence statements.
  2. Procedures: documentation lifecycle (W-8/W-9), GIIN monitoring, reporting (8966/local), corrections & re-filings, withholding agent interplay.
  3. Control calendar: who/what/when; KRIs; evidence artifacts; maker-checker sign-offs.
  4. Data & Privacy note: consent (Model 2), data exports, minimization/redaction, access controls.

Keep versions and change logs. Store PDFs in the FATCA dossier with a clear index.

3) Annual control calendar (baseline)

Frequency Control Owner / Checker Key artifact (evidence) KRI (example)
Monthly GIIN match to IRS FFI list; exceptions queue updated Tax Ops / Tax Lead GIIN tracker + match log + exceptions with closures % unresolved exceptions > 30 days
Monthly W-8 renewal queue (T-90/60/30) and expiries fallback Onboarding / Tax Ops Renewal tracker; comms; fallback decisions # expired docs with payouts
Quarterly Spot-tests of W-8/W-9 acceptance quality Tax Lead / QA Sample sheets (pass/fail) + remediation tasks Acceptance fail rate by form type
Quarterly Corrections & re-filings review (aging, receipts) Tax Ops / IT Corrections log; refiling tracker; receipts % corrections > 30 days open
Annual Reporting readiness (schema, mapping, dry-run) IT/Data / Tax Lead Data dictionary; validation summary; sign-off Reject rate in prior year
Annual RO certification pack assembly & sign-offs Tax Lead / RO RO dossier index; sign-off pack; briefing deck Open issues at RO brief

4) Committee cadence & reporting

  • Monthly FATCA Ops call: KRIs (renewals, GIIN exceptions), open corrections, privacy issues.
  • Quarterly governance update: trends, audit points, remediation status, tech changes.
  • RO brief (pre-certification): executive summary, dossier heatmap, disclosures draft.

5) Evidence management (what passes review)

  • Central FATCA dossier with stable paths; PDF/A where reasonable; bookmarked reports.
  • Index/evidence map (file→control); versioning and change logs.
  • Access control & privacy: PII minimization, redaction, least-privilege access.
  • Retention schedule (e.g., 7 years) and secure archive procedures.

6) Issues, remediation, and validation

  1. Record findings with severity, owner, ETA; include clear remediation tasks.
  2. Track validation evidence (before/after, re-test, approvals) before closure.
  3. Escalate material failures to RO with disclosure wording prepared early.
Governance pack (templates)
Control calendar (XLSX), policy outline (DOCX), monthly KRI dashboard (XLSX).
Want a turnkey FATCA governance setup?
We tailor your policy stack, build the control calendar, and produce a reviewer-ready dossier.

Related reading