By Pervin Sivanathan
Drawing on more than 30 years in insurance, Pervin Sivanathan reflects on transforming audit into a strategic force for resilience. As a female leader in a traditionally male-dominated sector, she champions collaboration, transparency and diverse perspectives, breaking down silos to strengthen governance, empower teams, and drive sustainable, organisation-wide change.
When I first began my career in insurance more than three decades ago, audit was often seen as a retrospective discipline – a function that looked back, identified gaps, and ensured boxes were ticked. It was necessary, certainly, but rarely described as transformative.
Today, that perception has fundamentally changed.
As Group Head of Audit & Advisory Services at Pro Global, my focus is on scaling a function that no longer sits at the periphery of the business, but at its strategic core. Audit, when delivered with clarity and collaboration, can become a catalyst for operational resilience, stronger governance, and smarter decision-making. It can also be a powerful force for breaking down silos; something I believe is essential if we are to genuinely support clients in an increasingly complex regulatory and digital landscape.
Strategic assurance
My career began in long-tail claims, managing highly technical asbestos and health hazard portfolios. Over the years, I moved into due diligence, M&A reviews and complex process audits, gaining insight into how insurers and MGAs operate under pressure; operationally, financially and regulatorily.
That breadth of experience shaped my perspective. I saw firsthand how fragmentation within organisations – between governance, technology, operations and compliance – often created risk. Critical information would sit in different departments. Vendor oversight might be handled inconsistently across territories. Accountability could blur at precisely the moment clarity was needed.
Regulatory frameworks such as the FCA’s operational resilience rules (SYSC 15A) and the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) have brought welcome structure and urgency to these challenges. But resilience is not achieved through regulation alone. It requires alignment.
Breaking down silos to strengthen clients
At Pro Global, scaling our Audit & Advisory division has meant looking beyond traditional audit methodologies. It has required us to work hand-in-hand with our Governance, Risk & Compliance and Technology & Digital Services teams to create a genuinely integrated resilience capability.
Each discipline has deep specialist expertise. But our real strength lies in how we work collectively.
When audit identifies a vulnerability, for example, inconsistent third-party vendor due diligence across business units – that is only the starting point. Our compliance specialists interpret those findings through the lens of regulatory expectation. Our technology teams then design and embed sustainable, scalable solutions that ensure the issue is not simply documented, but resolved and continuously monitored.
This collaborative model reflects the reality facing our clients. Regulators increasingly expect firms to demonstrate that important business services are mapped, impact tolerances are defined, and third-party dependencies are understood and tested. None of this can sit within one function alone. Operational resilience is both a technical and regulatory discipline, and ultimately a board-level responsibility.
In a recent industry webinar, 96% of participants agreed that operational resilience is a dual responsibility, spanning both regulatory and technical dimensions. That insight reinforces what we see every day: silos are no longer viable.
By breaking down our own internal barriers, we help clients do the same.
From periodic review to continuous assurance
Another key part of scaling our division has been transforming how assurance is delivered.
Traditional audits were periodic and backward-looking. In today’s environment, that is not enough. The proliferation of AI-driven tools, cloud-based vendors and outsourced service providers has dramatically expanded operational risk profiles. Manual spreadsheets and static reviews simply cannot keep pace.
We are therefore embedding data-driven audit technologies that provide dynamic dashboards, automated evidence capture and continuous oversight cycles. Automation does not replace auditors; it empowers them. It allows us to surface anomalies earlier, prioritise high-risk vendors, and shift the boardroom conversation from “Are we compliant?” to “Are we resilient?”
Resilience is not about perfection. It is about preparedness, visibility and adaptability. It is about creating systems that can absorb disruption, respond quickly and emerge stronger.
Leadership, visibility and shared accountability
For me, leadership has always been less about title and more about responsibility – particularly the responsibility to create clarity where there is complexity. In scaling our Audit & Advisory Services, my priority has been to build a culture that values transparency, collaboration and continuous learning.
I am fortunate to work alongside colleagues who bring decades of expertise across governance, compliance and technology. Together, we are modelling the integrated approach that regulators increasingly expect from the market.
Leadership in this space also means encouraging diverse perspectives. Insurance is evolving rapidly. Digital transformation, regulatory scrutiny and global interconnectivity are reshaping the sector. To navigate that environment successfully, we need teams that challenge assumptions, share knowledge openly and avoid territorial thinking.
Looking ahead
As we look ahead to the rest of 2026 and beyond, best practice in operational resilience will rest on three pillars: visibility across operational layers, clear accountability for outcomes, and the adaptability to respond to disruption in real time.
Audit has a critical role to play in all three.
By scaling our division at Pro Global, we are not simply growing a service line. We are strengthening an integrated capability that supports insurers and MGAs in building confidence, continuity and credibility in a demanding regulatory environment.
For me, that is the true value of modern audit. It is no longer a function that sits in the background. It is a catalyst – connecting governance, technology and operations into a cohesive framework that protects clients, supports boards, and enables sustainable growth.
And when we break down silos within our own organisations, we create the clarity and resilience that our clients, and our industry, increasingly depend upon.
Pervin Sivanathan
