Agile Internal Auditing

This is my first English-language contribution as a permanent external author of the Risk & Compliance Platform Europe. As my surname suggests, I come from Eastern Europe and I am active in several countries, such as Poland, Ukraine and Belarus. From now on, I will regularly write and publish about my expertise in the fields of Audit, Internal Control and Fraud Risks Prevention. I will start with the views of a special woman, Alkistis Gkiosi, BAcc, ACCA, CIA, CFE, who is known as a Compliance Expert and Internal Controls and Regulatory Affairs Professional. She has gained a lot of international experience, thanks to the various positions she fulfilled initially in the fields of external audit, and later in internal audit. The concept that has been recently trending among the experts in internal auditing globally is “agile internal auditing”. 

Agile means progressively stepping out from the traditional audit approach and stepping in to a more interactive, focused on “adding value” and “adaptable to change” approach. Agile internal audit, where there is the appropriate skillset and will, can be a valuable bridge in the gap between the business and the control functions.

Agile internal audit in financial services entities heavily reflects the need to respond to the volatility and rapid change of the environment, the key stakeholders’ expectations and the resources available, to provide meaningful recommendations and add value to the business. Adding value to the business incorporates the need to further balance the demands of other stakeholders (such as clients and regulators). In financial services, we observe a constant effort to balance the profit-oriented and technology focused nature of the business with the investors protections rules, the quality of the service provided to the clients, and the overall regulatory framework. To achieve that, it is important that the internal auditors realise the principles of an agile approach, and the key role that they are able to play in building some bridges and facilitating change.

Alex Movchan