Strategic Internal Auditing

Enhance internal audit's strategic role to improve business performance

Course Fee: £4500 + VAT (20%)

Dates for this course:

02 Dec 2019 to 13 Dec 2019 London
09 Mar 2020 to 20 Mar 2020 London
08 Jun 2020 to 19 Jun 2020 London
30 Nov 2020 to 11 Dec 2020 London
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Who should attend?

• Delegates who have some auditing experience, either directly as auditors or from within the quality assurance sector seeking to develop further their auditing skills and best practice approach to the development of the internal audit function in private and public sector organisations.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the course delegates will be able to: 

• Ensure their reports integrate risk for decision making processes 
• Identify and assess financial crime risks within the control environment
• Engage effectively with stakeholders and deliver assurance standards on the culture of the organisation
• Promote and enhance the function of the organisation’s Chief Risk Officer 

Course Content

The Role and Function of Internal Audit

• Key goals of the internal audit function
• Ensuring auditor objectivity
• Avoidance of conflicts of interest within auditing
• Auditor skillset

Conducting Effective Audits

• Pre-audit planning
• Effective audit sampling techniques
• Recording findings during auditing
• Effective stakeholder engagement

Audit Structures

• The audit committee’s role
• Developing the audit charter
• The external auditor’s role
• Developing and improving best practices

Financial Crime Risks

• Money laundering, terrorist financing and sanctions risks
• AML controls
• CTF controls
• Sanctions controls – matches
• Trade-based money laundering risks
• Customer due diligence controls
• Enhanced customer due diligence controls
• Consideration of money laundering risks in practice evidenced by the organisation  
• Beneficial Ownership Transparency – individuals and entities  
• Testing operational efficiency v. financial crime risk prevention in practice
• Training and awareness programmes

Audit Report Writing

• Ensuring objective comments
• Ensuring use of constructive language
• Financial crime compliance terms and abbreviations for internal auditors
• Improvement recommendations
• Continuous improvement techniques

Risk – Based Auditing

• Identifying areas of risk
• Identifying new areas of risk
• Classification and quantification of risk areas
• Identifying potential interface of existing and new areas of risk
• Developing audit and re – audit frequency in alignment with risk
• Overview of emerging and evolving threats

Conducting Effective Audits

• The auditor’s role as a consultant
• Utilising audit reporting to inform organisational policy development
• Continuous improvement initiatives and supervision
• Measuring improvement – toolkit for objective measurement and demonstration of audit output improvements

Financial Crime Compliance  

• Record keeping procedures
• Controls to identify potentially suspicious activities
• Trade finance transactions
• Trade processing controls by processing staff
• Red flagging procedures
• Pre-determined thresholds systems and controls
• Escalations
• Actions taken by senior management
• Evidence and awareness of senior management evidencing how crime risks evolve in organisational type of business

Engaging with the Audit Structure

• Making effective recommendations and business cases
• Presenting information effectively
• OSCOLA (Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities) for internal auditors
• Contributing meaningfully to the development of the long – term audit strategy
• Upgrading the profile of internal audit within the organisation