Internal audit and risk professionals know the frustration of witnessing hundreds of millions of dollars invested in projects, only to see many fall short of their intended business outcomes. According to research from Bent Flyvbjerg, a professor at Said Business School of Oxford University, only 8.5 percent of the 16,000 Read More
GUEST BLOG POST Lately, I’ve been reflecting on my experience presenting compliance updates to boards, both during my industry days and now as a consultant. One thing that consistently frustrates me is seeing compliance officers deliver presentations that are completely reactive. The focus is always on the number of investigations Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Silvergate Capital, its former CEO Alan Lane, and former Chief Risk Officer Kathleen Fraher with misleading investors about the strength of the Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) compliance program and the monitoring of crypto customers, including FTX. The SEC also charged Silvergate and its Read More
The internal audit profession has come a long way from when I entered it four decades ago. In the 1980s, a time before PCs, canned audit programs were common, as were manual confirmations, “nth item” samples from green bar dot matrix printed computer paper, and huge folders of workpapers secured Read More
With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly revolutionizing how we do business and live our everyday lives, Chief Internal Auditors are becoming increasingly concerned that cyber-criminals are likely to weaponize the technology to commit bigger, more sophisticated and more dangerous crimes. New research has found that 78 percent of Read More
In a landmark case, the Supreme Court has struck down the Securities and Exchange Commission’s authority to use in house-tribunals when seeking civil penalties against those accused of securities fraud. The Court, in the case of SEC v. Jarksey, ruled that when the SEC seeks civil penalties from defendants for Read More
GUEST BLOG POST I apologize in advance to all my friends who make a living (at least in part) by helping people write what they believe are “effective” internal audit reports. But every so often, we should challenge everything we do. So today, I am focusing on internal audit reports. Read More
Taking a holistic view in internal audit means understanding the entirety of a process from start to finish, including its various interconnections and implications. This approach involves thoroughly comprehending the activities involved, the individuals responsible, and the broader impact on the organization. By mapping out the complete beginning-to-end cycle of Read More
In today’s business environment, where risks continuously evolve and market dynamics constantly fluctuate, effective risk management is critical for financial institutions striving for stability and growth. Amidst such a challenging atmosphere, business intelligence (BI) tools have emerged as indispensable assets, revolutionizing the way risk analytics is conducted in the financial Read More
A university internal auditor who told federal investigators about Western Washington University’s use of “ghost courses,” and was later fired by the school, was awarded nearly $3 million in damages this week for whistleblower retaliation. Antonia Allen, former director of WWU’s Office of the Internal Auditor, sued the university in Read More
