Yes, Mary Beth, I am "lurking" by signing on as annonymous-just in case my auditor is reading this one!! I am curious what other banks are getting as far as copies of external compliance audit work papers. The company we use is not being very helpful when it comes time to turn loose of them for the examiners and it seems like I have to do a lot of work after they are gone to verify and correct their audit reports (so in essence, I do the audit over again). Do you guys have this built into your contracts and why are they so reluctant to give them up-is this a bad FBI agent movie or what?

Our contract specifies that we have access to workpapers whenever and wherever we wish. They agree to meet with examiners at any time. If you're having trouble with the quality of their audits, that should be grounds for terminating your contract with them and finding another firm who will do the job right. These things aren't cheap! Be sure that you're getting your money's worth.

Actually, now that you mention it, we are now taking bids. Does any company actually leave workpapers with the final audit report, or this some sort of "auditor etiquette"? Yes, these things are indeed pricey!

Our current auditor, one of the 'Final Four' - gave us the choice. They would leave us a set of workpapers, or retain them for us. Our prior auditor, another of the 'Final Four' didn't give us the choice - they keep them but we have access to them.

While the bottom line is pretty hard to swallow, the cost of doing audits in-house and keeping up skill levels of employees, etc. is a pretty large number too!

Me again-what is your e-mail address so I can ask who you guys use?

It's lglover@statenationalbank.com - or you can just click on my name on this thread and send me a private message.

You can e-mail me also if you want - I may be able to give you a lead on a firm.