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Financial companies come in all shapes and sizes. Some offer mortgage lending only or investment management only, while others offer a broad range of services that can include banking, insurance, loans, investments, mergers and acquisitions, trusts, estate planning, and more. And let's not forget that large companies whose primary business is not financial must nonetheless operate internal financial departments.
Like most large corporations, financial companies engage in multiple, complex business processes. These include industry-specific processes such as loan origination, and general processes such as human capital management. Today C-level executives are taking unprecedented steps to effectively manage the business processes of their companies. Many are now implementing comprehensive enterprise systems such as Peoplesoft or Oracle which offer customizable, interactive modules for managing every significant business process.
One of the motivators behind the heightened U.S. interest in improved business-process management is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, enacted in the wake of large-scale accounting scandals that involved some of America's best-known corporations. Sarbanes-Oxley, or SOX as it is called by industry insiders, requires companies to carefully document their financial processes, and be prepared for periodic audits.
User documentation and training materials for enterprise software modules, and reports that meet SOX requirements, are financial writing tasks that may need to be done at any company. Many more writing projects are now being done at specific types of financial companies, and the following segments examine a selection.