Spring Cleaning for Your Audit Committee

By : Neal Bishop

As spring approaches, many turn their thoughts toward cleaning house. The same concept should be applied to our businesses. For Banks, an important control feature is a well functioning audit committee. To ensure your audit committee is fulfilling its responsibilities, the following “spring cleaning” questions should be asked and addressed:

• Does your audit committee have a charter?
• Does your audit committee have a qualified financial expert?
• Has your audit committee assessed risk for the Bank and addressed the controls needed to mitigate the identified risks?
• Does your audit committee understand the Bank’s internal control structure?
• Does your audit committee maintain awareness of the Bank’s current policies and procedures?
• Does your audit committee maintain awareness of the current regulatory environment?
• Does your audit committee educate itself regarding current fraud issues, and regularly discuss such fraud issues as they might apply to the Bank?
• Does your audit committee maintain awareness of current industry practices, and regularly consider how current practices can be applied to improve Bank procedures?
• Does your audit committee meet on a regular basis?
• Does your audit committee have timely communication with the auditors and specialists it has retained to monitor is control environment?
• Does your audit committee review annual financial statements and, if applicable, quarterly filings in a thorough and timely manner?
• Does your audit committee provide reports of its activities to the full Board of Directors on a regular basis?
• Does your audit committee evaluate its effectiveness on an annual basis?
  

If you answered no to any of these questions then consider contacting the team at Nichols, Cauley & Associates LLC

Contact Nichols, Cauley & Associates by Email, phone, or online form with your questions.

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