The recent financial crisis highlighted weaknesses in the risk management, control and governance processes of banks as well as in their statutory audit and financial supervision. Since banking supervisors and external auditors play key roles in maintaining financial stability, their respective roles and interactions have come under increased scrutiny in the wake of the downturn. Since then, regulators and law makers have strived to address these shortcomings.

In particular, a 2014 Basel Committee on Banking Supervision paper explored the interaction between supervisors and external auditors and linked enhanced relationships with improved audit quality of banks’ financial statements and effective banking supervision.

On September 28, 2015, the CFRR is pleased to organize a conference at the Austrian National Bank for leading practitioners in the area of banking supervision and focusing on this important topic. The catalyst for this event is the launch of a World Bank publication about “Financial Supervisors and External Auditors: Building a Constructive Relationship”. This publication is based on findings of a survey reflecting the views of 85% European supervisors which was conducted with the support of the European Banking Authority and developed after several workshop discussions with senior staff of banking regulatory agencies from Europe and Central Asia.

The conference will present the findings of the survey and areas for consideration for policy makers and regulators in the context of the efforts to improve corporate governance arrangements in banks and contributions to enhanced supervision. Panel discussions will then review possible actions proposed by the report to improve and deepen the cooperation between external auditors and supervisors for enhanced audit quality, financial supervision and governance in financial institutions. Discussions will also address the role of auditors and practical questions in carrying out independent valuations in the particular event of a bank’s resolution under the European Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive.  This event will be an excellent opportunity for fruitful interaction between participants and high-level panelist speakers.