The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) is seeking comments on a proposed new International Auditing Statements (IAPS) entitled «The Audit of International Commercial Banks». The new statement was developed by IFAC’s International Auditing Practices Committee (IAPC) to provide practical assistance to auditors and to promote good practice in applying International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) to the audit of banks.
The proposed statement focuses on the various stages of the audit of a bank with emphasis on those matters which are either peculiar to or of particular importance in such an audit. Also included for illustrative purposes are appendices that contain examples of:
- typical internal control procedures and substantive audit procedures for two of the major operating areas of a bank – lending and treasury operations
- financial ratios commonly used in the analysis of a bank’s financial condition and performance
- risks and issues in securities operations, private banking and asset management, and
- typical warning signs of fraud in banking operations.
«Banks play a vital role in economic life and the continued strength and stability of the banking system is a matter of general public concern. The separate roles of bank supervisors and external auditors are important in this regard. This new guidance sets out the auditor’s role with respect to bank audits and considers special reporting relationships between auditors and bank supervisory and other regulatory authorities,» states Dietz Mertin, IAPS chairman.
The exposure draft can be downloaded from the IFAC’s website at http://www.ifac.org. Comments should be sent in by 31 January 2001. They may be e-mailed to EDComments@ifac.org or sent to the Technical Director at the IFAC secretariat, 26/F, 535 Fifth Avenue, New York 10017, USA.