Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 20 May 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. John McDonnell:

Just to answer, the audit cycle of Bank of Ireland, Senator, would operate throughout the full year. We wouldn't be with the bank throughout the full year but would operate throughout the full year. We would be engaged in a degree of planning and conversation with the bank - if I take it December-December, it's probably easiest - in the early part of the year, discussing with the bank key matters that are impacting their financial statements, discussing changes in accounting standards, changes in auditing standards and they would always seek our views on accounting for particular matters. That would happen, if you like, throughout the first half of the year. We would then enter into our review of the half-year financial statements, and that would take place, if it was a December year-end, generally we would plan for that in June and we would be operating in July and into August. Then we move into the planning of our audit and we would determine our audit plan and present that to the audit committee, generally in September time, and then we would start full-scale on the audit in October and that would run through until we sign the financial statements, which would be usually the end of February in a December year-end, then we would move into signing and finalising the form 20-F, which is the equivalent of financial statements we would have filed with the SEC. We'd finish that in March and we'd start the cycle again. The main bulk of our time would be probably, it changes every year but October to February, coming into March. In terms of the resources that we would have mobilised at the peak of the crisis, probably in and around 200 people, of which 25%, give or take, would be the senior management team, which would be partners and senior managers.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.