CFES is an industry-led organization open to banks, fintechs, and other companies that develops standards to promote effective risk management and compliance in financial services. CFES was founded in 2024 and incubated by FS Vector, the strategic advisory firm for companies innovating in financial services
In 2024, bank-fintech partnerships were growing faster than the guidance governing them. Banks were spending millions on duplicative diligence, fintechs were being assessed against a different bar at every institution, and no one could point to a shared definition of adequate.
FS Vector, which had spent several years advising both sides of these partnerships, concluded that the gap would not be closed by more guidance. It would be closed by standards the industry wrote itself. FS Vector convened the founding members, funded the initial work, and incubated CFES as an independent, industry-led organization, partnering with Sima Gandhi as co-founder.
The first CFES white paper was published that year. The STARC framework followed, then the Core Risk and Compliance Standards, the Lending Module, a Bank Advisory Committee, and a qualified assessor program. What began as a working thesis now spans 54 core standards across six compliance areas.
Technology increasingly drives financial services, reshaping risk in products, operations, and even partnerships between non-banks and banks. Technology evolves quickly, and so too should best practices that support safe and sound financial services innovation and growth. We believe industry-led standards play an important role in defining clear risk management and compliance standards to balance quick-moving innovation with safety.
