Product control

Within investment banking, product control is a control function responsible for safeguarding the assets of the bank and accurately reporting the daily profit and loss ("P&L") figures. This function is responsible for communicating these result within the bank and to regulators - such as the Federal Reserve or the European Central Bank. Within some investment banks the product control task is performed by the risk management team; see Financial risk management § Banking.

Product controllers are generally assigned to a particular asset class, and will provide an explanation of the P&L for a dedicated trading desk. In turn product controllers are responsible for insuring traders mark their books to fair value prices.

There have been high-profile cases in which banks have been fined for this control not working effectively, examples including the USA's financial services regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, fining European investment bank Credit Suisse over mismarking bonds during the height of the subprime credit crisis.[1] Poor product control procedure was also noted in the collapse of several US investment banks Lehman Brothers.[2]