Have you ever thought of applying an audit findings management system for your financial institution? All financial institutions encounter findings resulting from audits and examinations that require attention. The key inquiry is: How can these findings be efficiently remediated to ensure complete resolution? An effective findings management solution can provide guidance throughout the findings process, minimizing the likelihood of overlooking critical details and reducing the risk of unresolved findings that may escalate regulatory issues. Here’s more in the article below.
Audit findings are the outcome of an audit conducted by a financial institution to evaluate an organization's adherence to regulations, policies, and best practices. Financial institutions, particularly banks, must perform regular audits to ensure compliance with industry standards, legal and regulatory frameworks, and internal policies. Upon completion of the audit, the auditor presents the findings to communicate the discovered discrepancies and provide recommendations for improvement.
Audit findings are based on evidence gathered to assess how a bank's operations align with the established audit criteria. Auditors rely on documents with audit criteria to guide their evaluation of the bank's processes and procedures. This document outlines the bank's plans, policies, procedures, and mandatory requirements that it must satisfy.
The results of an audit can indicate either compliance or noncompliance with the established audit criteria. If a bank operates in adherence to the standards outlined in the criteria used to evaluate it, the audit finding is one of conformity. Conversely, if the bank's processes and procedures are deficient or inappropriate, the audit finding will indicate nonconformance, with the bank or some of its functions failing to meet the specified criteria.
When an issue requires correction, a nonconformity finding specifies the necessary adjustments to facilitate corrective action by the bank. Audit findings provide valuable insights into a financial institution's operational efficiency on a regular basis and its strategic readiness to progress forward.
Identifying corrective items before a regulator discovers them and highlights them as findings is ideal. To achieve this, banks must regularly monitor the findings, delegate tasks to address the issues raised by the findings, pinpoint opportunities for improvement, report findings to the relevant parties, and address accountability concerns. Using findings management software can streamline these activities and enhance the quality of future audit findings.
Having findings management software as a part of your risk and compliance management system is the best approach to eliminate the risk that an unresolved finding can cause, such as worsening regulatory issues. Ncontracts has vast experience in delivering the leading solutions for risk, compliance, and audit management for banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, etc. With these solution on board, financial institutions can expect:
Easy and engaging onboarding process and user-friendly interfaces
Organized and easily accessible information
Accountability and transparency of processes
Real-time reporting
Fast integration with other solutions by Ncontracts
Exam readiness promotion
Avoid the setbacks of an unresolved finding. If your institution is grappling with manual findings management, consider exploring automated findings management as a potential solution. It's worth investing the time to evaluate the advantages of automation to optimize your processes and ensure compliance.