Automated technology ensures a consistent and disciplined approach to audits

Transforming the banking industry with internal audit technology.

After operating as a successful residential mortgage lender for nearly 10 years, a well-established bank in Canada was approved to operate as a Schedule 1 Bank in February 2017. With offices in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia it has become one of Canada’s largest broker-channel sourced residential mortgage lenders.

Staying competitive in a rapidly changing marketplace requires great adaptability and agility. It’s a mindset that is evident throughout the organization, and more specifically, within its internal audit department. The audit team has shifted from manual processes to engaging with automated technology that ensures a consistent and disciplined approach to audits, while also offering greater insights into risks and controls.

With no previous audit management system in place, Wolters Kluwer TeamMate+ was selected as the audit management software that would help begin this transformation. In April 2017, the audit software launched in a sandbox environment, and by January 2018 TeamMate+ became the audit system of record.

“The network shared drive that we were using became too cumbersome, with multiple folders and sub-folders to search through to find the audit data we needed,” said the bank’s Director of Internal Audit.

As the Internal Audit team familiarized themselves with the functionality of TeamMate+, they uncovered a few features that help them address a variety of additional internal audit needs.

• TeamStore: Leveraging the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework of the organization, internal audit uploaded risks and controls into TeamStore, allowing them to be quickly accessed when working on audit projects. “Being able to go into TeamStore and get the data we need saves time and keeps us from continuously having to build audit information from scratch,” said the bank’s Director of Internal Audit.
• Perspectives: With TeamMate+, the internal audit team can drill down into the risk, procedure or issue perspective rather than flipping through folders and documents to view the correct information.
• Time tracking: This feature helps measure internal audit’s efficiency metrics and confirm alignment with the audit budget. “Time tracking allows us to compare budgeted audit time to actual time and track any variances, which significantly helps us with future planning,” said the bank’s Director of Internal Audit.

As this banking institution continues to adapt and evolve, so does its internal audit department. With an automated audit management system in place, auditors now produce a more consistent and reliable work product — especially as new auditors are added to the team. Moving forward, the internal audit team plans to implement a Quality Assurance and Improvement Program to ensure the work performed is meeting the audit standards of their organization, as well as those set forth by the Institute of Internal Auditors. “TeamMate+ gives us confidence that the work we do drives value throughout our organization, particularly when it comes to managing risk, in a way that is visible, consistent, and efficient,” said the bank’s Internal Audit Director.