Within banking, Product Control are a team responsible for the accounting and financial reporting of a trading desk. They are responsible for the bookkeeping

Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping is the recording of financial transactions. Transactions include sales, purchases, income, receipts and payments by an individual or organization. Bookkeeping is usually performed by a bookkeeper. Bookkeeping should not be confused with accounting. The accounting process is usually...

 of trades in the portfolio

Portfolio (finance)

Portfolio is a financial term denoting a collection of investments held by an investment company, hedge fund, financial institution or individual.-Definition:The term portfolio refers to any collection of financial assets such as stocks, bonds and cash...

s they look after, and act as a primary control function; monitoring trading activity to ensure it is within a specified remit.

In turn product controllers are responsible for insuring traders mark their books to fair value prices.

There have been many high profile cases of where banks have been fined for this control but working effectively, examples including the UK's financial services regulator the FSA

Financial Services Authority

The Financial Services Authority is a quasi-judicial body responsible for the regulation of the financial services industry in the United Kingdom. Its board is appointed by the Treasury and the organisation is structured as a company limited by guarantee and owned by the UK government. Its main...

fining Japanese Investment Bank Nomura over mis-marking of its books.

Poor product control procedure were also noted in the collapse of US investment Bank Lehman Brothers.