Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 20 May 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. Paul Smith:

Yes. I am happy, I am happy to respond to that, albeit with a big caveat, which is that I am no expert. You know, I am out of the business six years and before that I wasn't an auditor, per se. But the three recommendations were, one: that there would be more effective two-way communication between the regulator and the audit firms. I think I would have to refer to Dargan on this in terms on what the technicalities are around that because there's obviously a framework, a legislative framework around that. And since it involves issues of client confidentiality or at least, potential client confidentiality issues, I could see how some legislation might be required there. The second was in the strengthening the role of audit committees and the role of internal audit. I think that's not really a legislative matter. I suppose legislators will always want to participate but I think that that's more an internal matter, probably falling more within the codes of governance for companies generally. The third is around the audit of the returns that are made by financial institutions other than insurance companies and these are the quarterly returns to the Financial Regulator. I simply don't know whether that would require a legislative adjustment or not.

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