Bank Audit & Risk Committees Conference in Chicago

The Role of the Audit Committee

From BankDirectorMagazine

“John Palmer, managing partner of ICS Consulting Partners, reviews the basic skills and requirements that every audit committee needs to be successful today.”

What's Under the Hood: Audit Committees Role in M&A Due Diligence

From BankDirectorsMagazine

“Justin Long of Bracewell & Giuliani shares some red flags that boards should focus on when evaluating a target bank's compliance environment.”

KPMG: OECD Action Plan Is Significant Development in Global Collaboration To Modernize International Tax System

From Bobsguide

“While today's Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - presented to the G-20 finance ministers at their meeting in Moscow - represents a significant development in global collaboration to modernize the international tax system, the scale of the report and its ambitions for change could signal a potential seismic shift in the international tax landscape, according to KPMG LLP, the U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm.”

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Repositioning the Internal Audit from Good to Strong

From BankDirectorsMagazine

Lynn McKenzie, partner with KPMG, reviews what banks can do to improve internal audit by increasing board engagement, building strong leadership and developing more effective auditing processes.

What we are reading … 12th March 2013

U.S. Auditor Watchdog Criticizes PwC on Quality Control http://twb.io/ZlM6Vl

4G rollout won't be enough to boost mobile banking http://dld.bz/cpkXu

UK: Banking reform 'still does not go far enough' http://bbc.in/13OzJYQ

Android mobile banking exposure to risk concerns http://dld.bz/cpkXs

Lawmakers Demand Docs Over 'Too Big To Jail' Banks http://on.wsj.com/VXGcgX

M-Pesa Services Return after Elections http://shar.es/e3qHf

What Bitcoin Central's move REALLY means http://www.finextra.com/Community/FullBlog.aspx?blogid=7439

Consumers Yet To Trust Mobile Banking and Alternative Payments, Study Finds http://twb.io/144pdZh

Google joins bidders to build US consolidated audit trail system http://www.finextra.com/News/FullStory.aspx?newsitemid=24613

Maximizing the Use and Efficiency of Your Mobile Device http://dld.bz/cpkWR

What we are reading … 14th February 2013

Managing Bank Liquidity in Real Time http://dld.bz/aKbrt

Banks' internal auditors 'should be tougher' http://dld.bz/cgBrP

The Mobile Revolution: Remote Deposit Capture http://dld.bz/cg378

Moven is removin' 'bank' from its moniker http://dld.bz/cg33s

The EU Directive on Late Payments http://shar.es/YjY0t

South African Nedbank offers EMV mobile POS http://dld.bz/cg3vz

Ernst & Young to face second investigation

Ernst & Young (E&Y) is to face a second investigation into its auditing of failed bank Lehman Brothers.

The Accountancy & Actuarial Discipline Board (AADB) has announced details of the probe while also revealing it is to analyse the auditing work of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) undertaken on behalf of JPMorgan.

In a statement, the AADB said it will focus on “the conduct of Ernst & Young in relation to the preparation of a report to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in respect of Lehman Brothers International (Europe)’s compliance with the FSA’s “Client Asset Rules for the year ended November 30th 2007”.

The investigation is expected to go through the advice provided to the two banks surrounding the segregation of client funds from its own capital.

Representatives from both PwC and E&Y have confirmed that the auditing firms are both cooperating fully with investigators. The AADB stated that independent tribunals are expected to be held following the separate investigations.

Earlier in the year, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) levied its largest ever fine on JPMorgan Securities for failing to keep client funds separate from its own.

The financial services provider was asked to pay a record £33.32 million for errors surrounding the segregation of capital.

Auditors under FSA fire

Auditors were just too willing to follow management's line before the crisis the UK Financial Services Authority has charged. Now the FSA has outlined plans to bring auditors under closer supervision, arguing that they had failed to challenge dubious accounting practices in the run-up to the financial crisis, in a discussion paper published this week with the Financial Reporting Council, the UK accounting regulator.

As examples of recent accounting failures, the FSA said, "A credit institution incorrectly netted down derivatives in the balance sheet leading to a misstatement of circa £900 billion... A thematic review recently undertaken on arrears reporting revealed errors by 29 out of 30 of the credit institutions investigated."

Most auditors had done decent jobs, the regulator wrote, but it reiterated that "it is the auditor's responsibility to challenge management when it believes the disclosures are inappropriate". The FSA listed several areas where, it said, auditors had been too ready to accept management's accounts at face value.

Its own research, the FSA said, "has led it to question whether auditors are sufficiently skeptical when challenging management's basis for determining the models and assumptions used to derive ranges of fair-value estimates - in particular, the selection of particular estimates from within such ranges of probable estimates - where key inputs may be unobservable." In particular, fair-value accounting and the calculation of credit valuation adjustments showed more variation between and even within firms than was justifiable. "This diversity should trigger auditors to be more skeptical and to challenge management's judgments about modeling approaches and inputs," the FSA added.

In loan-loss provisioning, too, the FSA said it had seen more variation than seemed justified, adding: "Bank auditors should have placed greater importance on the disclosure requirements in 2007 and 2008. This could have mitigated some of the uncertainties that unsettled the markets."

In future, the FSA suggested, it could impose stricter reporting requirements on auditors, including more frequent meetings, higher transparency requirements, and trilateral meetings between auditors, bank audit committees and the FSA. It might also require all regulatory returns to be audited - it noted that the rate of errors is significantly lower in the returns of insurers, for whom this is already a requirement.