CBUAE
Connect appointment due diligence and continuing oversight across the arrangement.
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Specialised practice · TPRM
Vendor and third-party risk management in the UAE.
You can outsource the work; you cannot outsource the accountability. UAE regulatory requirements and client contract terms leave the organisation with continuing oversight obligations when a supplier fails. We build the governance to select, oversee and, where needed, audit the vendors your organisation depends on.
One programme, every dependency
Govern the supplier once.
Answer every obligation.
Regulators and clients expect the organisation to oversee its suppliers; the underlying obligations remain with it whatever the contract says about the work. One third-party risk programme can connect due diligence, continuing oversight, security, continuity and evidence across the vendor lifecycle.
TPRM
One governed lifecycle for supplier risk, oversight and assurance.
- Inventory and tiering
- Due diligence
- Control requirements
- Monitoring and audit
- Exit and escalation
ADGM CRMF
Organise vendor assessment, monitoring and incident arrangements within cyber governance.
UAE PDPL
Evidence controller and processor responsibilities relevant to vendor governance.
Supplier audits
Test critical suppliers against agreed criteria and return findings for action.
Continuity
Expose critical dependencies, concentration and workable transition arrangements.
Flow-down controls
Translate client security, continuity and compliance requirements into operating evidence.
Assess once.Tier each supplier and map its obligations once, then reuse the governed evidence across onboarding, monitoring, audits, renewals and client scrutiny.
The capability, component by component
Built from disciplines we deliver every day.
We are direct about the construction of this offer: it is not a separate methodology. It is assembled from disciplines this firm delivers every day across its certified-systems and audit work, applied to the specific problem of supplier oversight.
- Supplier due-diligence and tiering frameworks: the vendor base classified by criticality, with assessment depth proportionate to the risk each tier carries.
- Second-party supplier audits: audits of your suppliers on your behalf, drawn from our internal-audit practice and conducted to the same ISO 19011 discipline.
- Supplier security requirements: the supplier-relationship controls of the ISO 27001 control set, translated into operational requirements that procurement, contract owners and assessments can work from.
- Supply-chain continuity: dependency analysis and continuity requirements for critical suppliers, from ISO 22301 business continuity planning.
- Contractual oversight and escalation governance: the review cadence, performance evidence and escalation routes that make oversight enforceable rather than ceremonial.
Each component names its source deliberately. What we offer here is the same work we perform inside information security management system (ISMS), business continuity management system (BCMS) and assurance engagements, arranged around your vendor base.
Beyond the direct relationship
What the programme must see beyond the immediate supplier.
Oversight built around named suppliers misses the exposures that actually interrupt a service. Four questions sit outside the direct relationship and belong in the programme from the start.
A complete supplier inventory. Oversight cannot reach what is not recorded, and supplier information is commonly held across procurement, finance and individual business units rather than in one place. For banks within its scope, the CBUAE Outsourcing Regulation requires an outsourcing register; for everyone else the same discipline is what makes tiering, monitoring and reporting possible at all.
Material subcontractors and fourth parties. The supplier you contracted with is often not the party performing the work or holding the data. Delivery chains and data-processing arrangements need to be visible to the point where the exposure actually sits, with the contracted supplier accountable for disclosing and controlling them.
Concentration. Individually acceptable arrangements can aggregate into a single point of failure: several services from one provider, several providers dependent on one platform, one location or one specialist skill. Concentration is assessed across suppliers, locations, technology and critical services, because it is invisible when suppliers are reviewed one at a time.
Exit and transition. The arrangements that matter on the worst day are agreed on the first: access to your data in a usable form, continuity of service during transition, and whether a replacement exists that does not carry the same dependency. Exit planning is a design input, not a termination activity.
Scope boundary
Where our scope ends.
ExSolution assesses supplier controls and helps define the operational requirements that procurement and contract owners need to address. We do not provide legal advice, draft contractual terms or determine whether a provision is legally enforceable. Contract wording and legal conclusions remain with the client's legal counsel.
Second-party supplier audits test evidence against agreed criteria. They do not constitute statutory audit or independent assurance, and work over controls ExSolution designed or implemented is not presented as independent assurance. Where an independent conclusion is required, it must come from a provider that did not design or implement the subject matter.
The wider independence position is set out under governance, risk and assurance.
Typical deliverables
What an engagement typically produces.
Configured to scope; a proposal states exactly which apply.
- Vendor tiering model
- Due-diligence questionnaire set
- Supplier audit programme
- Control requirements for procurement and legal review
- Escalation and exit criteria
- Oversight reporting format
Is this the right service?
Where this capability fits.
- CBUAE, ADGM or Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) obligations make vendor oversight a regulatory requirement.
- Critical suppliers need auditing on your behalf to a defensible standard.
- Client or tender flow-downs demand evidence of supplier oversight.
- The need is a third-party risk management (TPRM) software platform: select a platform vendor; we configure the governance around whichever you run.
- Supplier failure is primarily a continuity exposure: Business Continuity – ISO 22301 + NCEMA 7000.
- The whole oversight structure needs building, not the vendor component alone: Governance, Risk & Assurance.
Delivery
A named Engagement Lead.
The proposal names the Engagement Lead responsible for coordinating the vendor risk consultancy work, client communication and delivery. A second senior practitioner, not involved in day-to-day delivery, provides quality review. Team size is configured to scope: tiering an existing vendor base is a different assignment from building oversight governance across a regulated group.
Vendor risk rarely stands alone. It usually connects to an information-security, continuity or assurance requirement, and we build it so the same evidence serves all of them. The wider oversight structure it belongs to is described under governance, risk and assurance.
How we work →Questions buyers ask
Straight answers.
Is this a software platform?
No. This is governance: the tiering, requirements, audit and escalation discipline that any TPRM tool would need to be configured around. The work is tool-agnostic; if you already run a governance, risk and compliance (GRC) or TPRM platform, we work within it rather than selling you another one.
Can you audit our suppliers for us?
Yes. Second-party audits, our practitioners auditing your suppliers on your behalf against your requirements, are part of the offer, drawn from our internal-audit practice. Findings come back as evidence you can act on contractually.
Where do we start?
By tiering the vendor base by criticality. Tiering commonly reveals that assessment effort is concentrated on low-criticality suppliers while critical ones are reviewed no more closely. Once the tiers are honest, due-diligence depth, audit frequency and contractual requirements follow from them.
Experience across sectors and systems.
Explore representative anonymised assignments across government, aviation, healthcare, retail and real estate, manufacturing, and maritime services.
Being asked about your suppliers?
Tell us who is asking, a regulator, a client or your own board, and what your vendor base looks like. We aim to respond within two business days.
Related: Governance, Risk & Assurance · Information Security – ISO 27001 · Business Continuity