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#112092 - 09/04/03 03:42 PM responsibilities within audit department
Anonymous
Unregistered

For those banks who have more than 1 auditor..How do you break up the areas to be audited? Right now, we have three auditors and we cover operational/branch audits, compliance, loan review from a compliance viewpoint and centralized functions such as edp, AP, website,internet banking, etc. All three of us do all types of audits. Is this the most efficient or should I assign all lending to one auditor, all operational to one and all centralized to another. I realize this is somewhat bank specific but what is everyone else doing.

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#112093 - 09/04/03 03:56 PM Re: responsibilities within audit department
Pale Rider Offline
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Pale Rider
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 34,318
under the Lone Star
The only specialized auditors we had were IT, all the rest (8) are generalists.
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#112094 - 09/04/03 03:59 PM Re: responsibilities within audit department
Tom Fridrich Offline
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Tom Fridrich
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 180
Omaha, NE
Our audit staff consists of five. Our manager is an accountant who is primarily responsible for auditing the bank. We have a auditor who does only loan quality review. I primarily do compliance related reviews, but have also done some loan quality. The two other auditors will do a variety of reviews except the loan quality so far. My experience is with compliance so I focus on that and my manager is the accontant so she focuses on those issues. I like to keep a focus but like learning other aspects so I can be more valuable to the bank. However, we are asking the two other auditors to choose a focus for their auditing so we can get them to more training classes. I have only been at this bank for six months but it seems to be working well for us.
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#112095 - 09/04/03 04:20 PM Re: responsibilities within audit department
Risk Officer Offline
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Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 205
Dallas
While I don't know if there is a right or wrong answer, here are some of my thoughts...

For the smaller departments (i.e. 3 or 4 or so), I think it would be best to have everyone trained to audit traditional areas, but perhaps have specialities where extra training is provided to designated personnel. For example, everyone would be able to audit loans, deposits, investments, teller, branch operations, etc. Everyone should also have a general knowledge of "speciality" or complex areas such as general IT controls, compliance, insurance, brokerage, macro risk areas (i.e. interest rate risk, credit risk, liquidity risk, etc.), etc. However, specific auditors should receive extra training in the more complex areas in order to become specialists.

If you completely segregate duties within a small department, you are crippled when one leaves, so cross-training is key. Large departments can have appropriate backup within each segment.

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#112096 - 09/04/03 06:33 PM Re: responsibilities within audit department
Anonymous
Unregistered

Let me give my "two-cents" worth (i.e., if you think it's worth that much) as a 25-year audit partner of a regional New England firm -- who enjoys this site as very informative. First, if you're one of three people, you probably should be acting more as a manager/project manager to determine what areas can be audited by in-house staff, versus co-sourcing or outsourcing arrangements. What training opportunities do your people get? The problem with most small shops is that the people are mistreated from the standpoint of being overwhelmed, undertrained, and poorly developed. There are no developmental opportunities for small-shop auditors to learn specialty areas in a quality manner, and to pursue stronger audit/internal control knowledge (e.g., CISA, CIA, CFE, CPA, CBCP, CISM, CISSP, CRCM, whatever, etc., etc.) Even if one of your people becomes strong in an area (e.g., PATRIOT Act), before you know it, they're on to something else. Have you thought of encouraging them to obtain the CIA certification from IIA?

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#112097 - 09/06/03 12:24 PM Re: responsibilities within audit department
Joe Offline
Member
Joe
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 74
Overseas
You can lead the horse to water but you can’t force him to drink!!!. Self-development is the auditor’s responsibility. We all don’t have time to do any thing but you have to find the time. If you want to achieve something, you have to work at it. I am a CIA, CISA, CISSP and almost done with my CPA. And let me tell you something, the credit does not go to my employer; it was done through my efforts and expense.

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