The Bank of England has published a speech by Sasha Mills (Director, Cross Cutting Policy, Bank of England) on the subject of Internal Audit and supervisory expectations.
In her speech Ms Mills outlines what good Internal Audit looks like. This includes:
- scanning the horizon for emerging risks, being proactive and looking at where the business is going rather than assessing what has already happened;
- bearing in mind the firm’s culture when conducting work and thinking about what the results of all pieces of work say about the culture and management values of the firm;
- sharing areas of interest with supervisors so that they can be aware of what Internal Audit considers to be the risks, and so that Internal Audit can direct its work to the areas of risk supervisors’ are interested in;
- being independent and provide challenge as well as assurance;
- having people with the right skills and experience to be able to probe and challenge all areas of the firm with authority; and
- pushing to ensure that the firm is fully compliant with Financial Services Code. It is not unreasonable to assume that a firm’s supervisor might ask an Audit Committee chair for their assessment of their function against this code.
View Internal Audit and supervisory expectations – building on progress, 3 February 2016
