2018 Planning Priorities for Internal Audit in Financial Services

This latest edition of our hot topics paper explores key priorities that internal audit departments should be considering for 2018.

Internal audit is not an isolated or standalone activity: it should be responsive to business issues and change, and provide confidence in the outcomes firms generate. With a core purpose of providing assurance, now is the time to focus on new approaches.

In this 2018 edition, we continue to focus on market disruption, innovation and changing business models. When aggregated with external factors such as assessing the impacts of Brexit or revised regulatory demands, there is a natural consequence for Internal Audit functions to focus on functional transformation to deliver increased impact and influence.

In addition to topics recognised as key in prior years, 2018 sees the addition of a number of new planning priorities to consider, including ‘Model Risk Management’ and ‘Customer Vulnerability’. Rapid developments in robotics, automation, Blockchain and FinTech are on the agendas of financial services organisations, generating new and evolving risks for internal audit to address, as well as providing opportunities for internal audit functions to innovate in respect of their methodology.

This paper considers what Internal Audit may do with such new approaches and to address these changes; we hope this edition contributes to your 2018 planning process. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with the Deloitte contacts listed if you would like to discuss any aspect in further detail.