For several months, the House of Lords has been holding hearings into the external audit profession in the UK. They have reviewed the role of the auditors in the financial crisis, whether their dominance of the external audit market (the Big 4 audit 99 or the FTSE 100) affects audit quality, the quality of communications with regulators, and the risk of one of the Big 4 failing.

I am in the process of writing an article on assessing risk management and wanted to include an example of a maturity model. It would have to be one that is clear, and the vision embodied in the highest level would have to be something that I agree is both aspirational and achievable.

The other day, I was working on an article about assessing risk management and looked to the COSO ERM Framework for quotes. Specifically, I looked at the Executive Summary for language concerning the need for decisions to be based on timely, current, and reliable information about risks. I found these excellent observations:

My friends at Protiviti have issued a new Internal Audit Capabilities and Needs Survey. As usual, it hits several high notes, which it will address at a webinar on March 23.

A blog by Compliance Week editor, Matt Kelly on the topic of the recent Renault fiasco (as he eloquently puts it), reminded me of an assertion I frequently make in my presentations:

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is the independent regulator in the UK and, in addition to mandatory standards, they occasionally publish non-mandatory guidance on governance. On March 3, they released Guidance on Board Effectiveness.

Those people at Deloitte are prolific! The latest, out today, is a study of how risk management has become integrated into performance and compensation practices at financial services companies.