We are happy to share the third edition of Risk in Focus defining hot topics for Internal Auditors.
This edition is the result of a collaborative effort between seven European institutes of internal auditors in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK and Ireland. As previously, Chief Audit Executives (CAEs) have been interviewed in all of these territories and across sectors as part of the qualitative research into priority risk areas that are expected to be addressed in audit plans for 2019 — and further into the future. To supplement the interview process, this year for the first time a survey was distributed that received 311 responses. The European institutes of internal auditors are immensely grateful to everybody who contributed to this report, both the 300- plus CAEs who responded the survey and especially the 42 executives who gave up their time to be interviewed.
The 10 priority risk areas internal audit should address in 2019 are:
- Cybersecurity: IT governance & third parties
- Data protection & strategies in a post-GDPR world
- Digitalisation, automation & AI: technology adoption risks
- Sustainability: the environment & social ethics
- Anti-bribery & anti-corruption compliance
- Communications risk: protecting brand & reputation
- Workplace culture: discrimination & staff inequality
- The new era of trade: protectionism & sanctions
- Risk governance & controls: adapting to change
- Auditing the right risks: taking a genuine risk-based approach
- Find out the detailed results of the study here.