A Japanese national, Hiroshi Naka assumed office as the Vice President and Auditor General of the World Bank Group Internal Audit Vice Presidency (IAD) on July 7, 2014. Mr. Naka is responsible for providing strong leadership and a systematic and disciplined approach to evaluating and improving the effectiveness of the organization’s governance, risk management, and control processes in accordance with the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) International Professional Practices and Framework.

Prior to taking up his position at the World Bank Group, Mr. Naka served as the Deputy Director-General at the Japanese Ministry of Finance (2012-14), where he successfully led the government’s efforts to remedying deficiencies in anti-money laundering and terrorist financing, planning and implementing economic sanctions, introducing new regulations requiring banks in Japan to establish internal controls in compliance with economic sanction rules based on the Foreign Exchange Act, and strengthening bilateral financial cooperation with ASEAN 5 nations as well as multinational financial cooperation of ASEAN+3.

Between 1983-2012, Mr. Naka served in various capacities with the Japanese Ministry of Finance and was responsible for planning and successfully hosting the 2012 Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank Group as Secretary-General for the Japan Secretariat. In 2008-2009, he served as Director, Coordination Division and Development Policy Division and International Bureau – meticulously managing personnel and budget, establishing and implementing development and economic policies to address global financial crisis. In 2003, he served as Deputy Finance Manager for the Inter-American Development Bank and was instrumental in applying the COSO Enterprise Risk Management-Integrated Framework and supervising capital market and accounting divisions. Prior to 2003 he served as Director, Supervision Bureau, and Financial Supervisory Agency (Japan) and oversaw consumer credit institutions; Chief Representative for the Japan Center for International Finance in London and was responsible for conducting analyses on Asian currency crisis and reporting to the Ministry of Finance; Director, Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau, managing over 15,000 staff and negotiating with labor unions and press relations; Consul at the Consul General of Japan located in Los Angeles (USA); and the Second Secretary at the Embassy of Japan in the USSR, among other senior positions.

Mr. Naka holds a LL.B. from the University of Kyoto Law Department. He taught economics at the Graduate School of Economic Science, Saitama University, in the field of banking laws and regulations governing the global financial system to doctoral program students. He co-authored the publication titled “Lecture on the Banking Law”, which was published in 1994 by the Kinzai Institute for Financial Affairs, Inc.