Internal Audit & Controls

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published a new report setting out what’s working, and what isn’t, across the audits of the UK’s twelve largest firms. Drawing from inspections carried out over the 2023/24 and 2024/25 cycles, the regulator’s Key Findings and Good Practice Report shines a light on both the progress being made and the persistent gaps that continue to shape the state of audit quality in the UK.

Australia’s corporate watchdog has delivered a stern warning to the audit sector after uncovering what it called “concerning” failures in compliance with auditor independence obligations.

The UK’s audit watchdog has sanctioned KPMG and one of its senior partners, Anthony Sykes, for serious lapses in their 2022 audit of online retailer N Brown Group.

The UK’s audit watchdog has kicked off an ambitious set of consultations aimed at shoring up trust in financial reporting, with proposals that touch fraud detection, going concern judgments, auditor reporting, and enforcement powers.

Australia’s corporate watchdog has refreshed its guidance for auditors, issuing an updated regulatory guide that consolidates and simplifies rules around reporting breaches and contraventions to the regulator.

In Norman Marks’ latest piece, he emphasizes why boards, CEOs, and auditors should place their attention on the controls that matter most—those tied directly to enterprise objectives. Drawing on decades of experience, Marks underscores that auditing should be future-focused and risk-based, centering on the design and operation of critical internal controls rather than just data testing.

In this article, Norman Marks reflects on how internal audit must evolve in step with the rapid changes reshaping global businesses. Drawing on his own experience as Chief Audit Executive at Tosco Corporation, Marks argues that internal audit should be designed around the risk universe rather than static frameworks, emphasizing flexibility, agility, and a willingness to rethink traditional models in the face of AI-driven transformation.