[1][2] The function is an important risk management element within investment banking, and is also often employed by corporate treasuries, hedge funds, and more recently, crypto trading firms.
Given its responsibilities, [2] Product Control will straddle Finance and Risk Management, reporting into both the CFO and the CRO.
[3][2] As a key element of the governance structure of financial institutions, [3] this team will independently verify asset prices, thus ensuring that traders mark their books correctly — an important protection against rogue traders — and that the balance sheet is then aligned to the accounting definition of fair value; see Valuation risk.
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.
[5] Poor product control procedure was also noted in the collapse of several US investment banks such as Lehman Brothers.