Internal auditors play a crucial role in any bank – in
fact, it's fundamentally important to assess that the risk and
control infrastructure functions properly. In an industry which has
been through so much change and is evolving faster than ever
through technological developments, it's also a position that
requires increasing flexibility and adaptability.
Most recently, because of enhanced scrutiny from the Financial
Conduct Authority (FCA), retail banks' internal auditors have
seen another area come into their purview: conduct risk.
First, a quick definition: conduct risk, in its most basic
sense, focusses on the steps a bank, or any organisation regulated
by the FCA, takes to ensure the right products are sold to the
right people and that these provide value for money i.e. customers
are only sold products from which they'll actually derive some
benefit. A high-profile example of this going wrong would be
PPI-misselling.
