Dhayalaruban Thangaraja
Director of Internal Audit
The restrictive and strictly regulated environment faced by banking and payment institutions worldwide is applying more pressure on Board of Directors to implement effective and robust internal control frameworks. Global efforts to bolster regulation around the financial services industry further affirms the current prioritisation being afforded to the sectors’ overall continuity and viability in the long run.
In a bid to mitigate such a high-risk environment and strengthen the holistic control frameworks being implemented, national legislature has evolved to incorporate the legal imposition of establishing autonomous internal audit functions that help in combatting the turbulent risk scenarios faced by the industry on a day-to-day basis.
Enhancing internal control frameworks through independent oversight and support
Whilst it is important to highlight that the most common solution for banking and payment institutions is to appoint in-house internal auditors within their governance structures, interpretations of the role often involve an innovative mixture of co-sourcing whereby the appointed in-house internal auditors may be supplemented and supported by the outsourced elements and provide a truly dynamic approach to the assessment of the implemented internal control framework.
BDO Malta can provide substantial support to financial institutions and serve as the backbone of the institutions’ internal control framework, whereby the applied governance structure may be supplemented with an additional oversight element that is able to provide an independent overview and assessment of the implemented controls.
How can BDO Malta help?
BDO Malta can assist financial institutions through:
- full internal audit function outsourcing;
- internal audit function co-sourcing;
- external support of “in-house” internal audit functions; and
- specialized training on the internal audit function.