A clear explanation of authorized signatory lists, how they relate to delegation of authority, and why outdated lists create operational and fraud risk.
Definition: An authorized signatory list is a governed record of individuals permitted to execute specific instruments — such as contracts, banking instructions, board resolutions, and corporate filings — on behalf of the organization, typically scoped by legal entity, instrument type, and signing threshold.
Authorized signatory lists sound simple: a list of people who can sign on behalf of the organization. In reality, they become complex quickly — especially across entities, bank accounts, and contract types. The Cygnetise 2021 Future of Authorized Signatory Management report found that most organizations still manage signatory lists using spreadsheets, PDFs, and email — creating operational risk that grows with every entity added and every role change left unprocessed.
An authorized signatory list documents who is permitted to sign certain instruments:
It is not the same thing as:
| Concept | What It Controls | How It Differs from a Signatory List |
|---|---|---|
| Banking entitlements | System access to initiate/approve transactions | Access control, not authority grant |
| Delegation of authority | Who can approve a decision at a given threshold | Governs approval, not execution |
| Signature delegation | A specific grant of signing power for defined scope/time | One mechanism within the broader signatory program |
| Power of attorney | Legal right to act on behalf of another externally | Legal instrument, not internal governance |
Good governance makes these align. Operational reality often does not.
Signatory lists tend to fail in predictable ways:
These aren't minor issues. According to West Monroe's 2026 research, 73 percent of C-suite executives believe that cutting decision time in half would unlock 5–25 percent of revenue. Outdated signatory lists create exactly the kind of operational friction — rejected transactions, delayed account operations, emergency re-approvals — that slows an organization without reducing risk.
A helpful way to think about it:
In well-run organizations, execution authority is constrained by approval authority. But when the two drift, you get patterns like: a person can sign a contract but lacks the approval authority for its value; a person is listed as a bank signer but no longer holds the role; a person has approval authority but can't execute because counterparties don't recognize them.
Our recommendation: Treat approval authority and execution authority as two layers that must stay aligned. The most common organizational failure is managing these independently — one team owns the DOA matrix while a different team owns signatory lists — with no systematic reconciliation between them.
A mature signatory program usually includes:
If those checks are painful, the list has become an operational risk.
Aptly helps maintain signatory lists as governed, searchable content with version history and auditable issuance, so stakeholders can quickly answer "who can sign what" without relying on stale documents. For the day-to-day mechanics, see Keeping Delegations and Signature Authority in Sync.
Risk-based recertification is the standard: quarterly for high-risk instruments (banking, large-value contracts), semi-annually for moderate-risk instruments, and annually for low-risk categories. Event-driven recertification should also trigger on any role change, termination, or organizational restructuring affecting signatories.
A signatory list is an internal governance record of who is authorized to sign on behalf of the organization. A bank mandate is the formal instruction to a bank specifying who can operate accounts and under what conditions (including signing combinations and transaction limits). The signatory list informs the mandate, but they are maintained separately and can drift apart.
Typically, Treasury or Legal owns signatory lists for banking and corporate instruments, while Procurement or Legal Operations owns contract signing authority. The critical factor is that a single function has clear ownership for each instrument type, with a defined process for updates that connects to HR role changes and DOA updates.
Immediate actions should include revoking the individual's signing authority, notifying banks and counterparties of the removal, updating internal signatory lists, reviewing any pending transactions requiring that individual's signature, and activating pre-approved backup signatories if coverage gaps exist. The speed of this process is a key indicator of signatory program maturity.
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