Regulatory Inquiries
Manage regulatory requests, exams, and supervisory interactions — with response workflows, evidence on each inquiry record, and full visibility into status.
Product Overview
Respond to Regulators with Structure, Speed, and Confidence
Regulatory Inquiries is the process of managing requests, examinations, and ongoing interactions with regulators and supervisory bodies. SmartSuite’s Regulatory Inquiries software records each inquiry, its owners, and its evidence, so responses are on time, consistent, and traceable for audit.
SmartSuite lets organizations log regulatory requests, assign ownership, and coordinate responses across teams and departments. With one register of inquiries, teams can track each request, attach supporting documentation, and follow response progress in a way that is repeatable, auditable, and defensible.
The product covers formal exams, ad hoc inquiries, supervisory requests, and ongoing regulatory communications, all managed in one workflow.
Dashboards show inquiry status, deadlines, and workload by team, so organizations meet due dates, avoid missed obligations, and keep regulators informed. Regulatory risk falls as responsiveness improves.
As part of SmartSuite’s GRC architecture, Regulatory Inquiries goes beyond request tracking.
Inquiry records link to:
- Compliance assessments and regulatory obligations
- Policy management and governance frameworks
- Control frameworks and audit activities
- Issues and remediation workflows
- Enterprise and operational risk activities
Regulatory interactions are managed as part of the compliance and governance program, with each link kept current as responses move.
Typical use cases include:
- Regulatory exams and supervisory reviews
- Ad hoc regulatory inquiries and requests
- Documentation and evidence management
- Regulatory response coordination and tracking
Compliance teams get a Regulatory Inquiries program that is defensible for regulators and auditors, coordinated across teams and departments, and transparent for compliance and leadership.
What is Regulatory Inquiries Management?
Regulatory Inquiries Management is the process of managing requests, exams, and interactions with regulators. It enables organizations to coordinate responses, track documentation, and maintain visibility into regulatory obligations and communication.
Core Capabilities
SmartSuite’s Regulatory Inquiries product provides the capabilities required to manage regulatory interactions end-to-end — combining response workflows, documentation management, and dashboards in one platform. Each capability links to other SmartSuite products across compliance, risk, audit, and operational workflows.
Inquiry Intake & Tracking
Log regulatory requests and track status, deadlines, and ownership across teams.
Response Workflow Management
Coordinate responses with assignments, review steps, and approvals run by automations.
Document & Evidence Management
Attach and organize supporting documentation on the inquiry record with full traceability.
Deadline & Escalation Tracking
Monitor deadlines and trigger alerts or escalations so responses go out on time.
Regulatory Interaction History
Keep a complete history of inquiries, responses, and communications per regulator.
Dashboards & Inquiry Analytics
Visualize inquiry status, response timelines, and workload across teams.
Workflow Automation
Automate assignments, reminders, and approvals for response processes.
Cross-Product Integration
Link inquiries to controls, policies, risks, issues, and audit workflows.
Role-Based Access Control
Restrict sensitive regulatory data to the teams and stakeholders who need it.
The Regulatory Inquiry Lifecycle
SmartSuite supports the full regulatory inquiry lifecycle — from intake through response and closure — with linked workflows and dashboards.
Receive Inquiry
Capture regulatory requests and define scope, requirements, and deadlines.
Assign & Coordinate
Assign ownership and coordinate response activities across teams.
Collect Documentation
Gather required evidence, documents, and supporting materials.
Review & Approve Response
Validate completeness and accuracy before submission.
Submit & Track Outcome
Submit responses and track follow-ups or additional requests.
Connected Risk Ecosystem
SmartSuite products operate as one GRC platform, so regulatory inquiries stay linked to compliance, risk, and governance workflows. The Regulatory Inquiries product integrates with related products to provide a complete view of regulatory interactions and obligations.
Manage assessment campaigns and testing schedules with a reusable question library, automated workflows, and one place for evidence collection.
Centralize creation, approval, and publication of policies with full lifecycle tracking and attestations, ensuring they remain current, accessible, and auditable.
Track and remediate issues across audits, risk, and compliance with structured workflows, clear ownership, and real-time visibility into resolution status.
Centralize enterprise risk management with standardized assessments, dashboards, and linked workflows that align risk, controls, and mitigation across your organization.
Who This Product Is For
The Regulatory Inquiries product supports stakeholders across compliance, legal, risk, and audit — enabling structured and efficient regulatory engagement.
Chief Compliance Officer
Compliance Manager
Regulatory Affairs Manager
Risk Manager
Internal Auditor
Executive / Board Member
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to the questions readers ask most about this topic.
Regulatory inquiries are formal requests from regulators for information, documentation, or clarification about an organization’s operations, controls, or compliance posture, arising from examinations, supervisory activity, or ad hoc questions. They are time-sensitive and shape the regulatory relationship. SmartSuite records every inquiry with its owner, deadline, response, and evidence, so a compliance officer can see what is open, what is due, and what was sent.
Each inquiry is a record with fields for regulator, request type, due date, scope, and owner, tracked through intake, response, review, and closure. Inquiries link to related controls, risks, and earlier requests from the same regulator. Teams filter the register by regulator or due date to plan the week’s work.
Response work is split into tasks assigned to subject matter experts with deadlines, and the tasks roll up to the inquiry. Contributors draft and comment on the inquiry record, and automations remind owners as due dates approach. The coordinator sees which pieces of the response are done and which are late.
Responses draw on the controls, policies, and documents already recorded in SmartSuite, linked to the inquiry rather than reconstructed from memory. A review and approval step runs before anything goes to the regulator. Compliance leads can compare a new response with earlier answers to the same regulator to keep them consistent.
Documents, reports, and data extracts are attached to the inquiry record or linked from the control and policy records they come from, and Activity History shows who added or replaced each file and when. Evidence stays with the inquiry it supported. When an examiner follows up a year later, the team opens the inquiry and finds everything that was sent.
Activity History on each inquiry records its origin, every assignment, each draft and approval, and the evidence attached, with who did what and when. Links to the controls and policies involved show the basis for the response. Organizations can demonstrate exactly how an inquiry was handled.
Yes. Each regulator has its own history of inquiries, responses, and communications, so recurring themes and prior answers are easy to find. Dashboards show inquiry volume and turnaround by regulator over time. Teams prepare for the next exam from the record of the last one.
Owners, deadlines, review steps, and reminders keep responses complete and on time, and dashboards show anything at risk of slipping. Consistent, well-evidenced answers build credibility with regulators exam after exam. Compliance risk falls because missed deadlines and conflicting responses stop happening.
Stay Ready for Every Regulatory Interaction
SmartSuite delivers a complete GRC suite that connects regulatory inquiries with compliance, risk, and governance workflows.