The new draft internal control framework (ICF) from COSO includes guidance on how to assess whether the system of internal control is effective. 

The ASX Corporate Governance Council, chaired by the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), has released a second edition of Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations (see here for the ASX announcement and related resources, or here if you want to go directly to the document (PDF)). 

These are the posts on my personal blog that obtained the most views. The #1 post, on risk appetite, garnered nearly 3,000 views. 

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has released a draft of its supervisory guidance on the internal audit function in banks. The link to the 27-page document is at the foot of this summary. Comments are due in March. 

I found some striking and heartening points, as well as some surprising and disappointing points, in the latest technology survey from McKinsey & Company. 

It's one of those "givens": "you can't audit your own work." This can inhibit an auditor, appropriately, from designing business processes, writing standards or policies, and other activities that should be performed by management.

Yet again, issues have arisen with respect to the quality ot external auditors' work. This article on Deloitte reported that the PCAOB found deficiencies in 45% of inspected audits performed by that firm. Previous inspections found issues with audits by Ernst & Young (deficiencies in 20% of the audits inspected), PwC (29%), and KPMG (23%).

Many if not most of the items on my wish list are aspirational at best. They cover multiple areas, all coming together around my general theme of better run organizations. They include aspects of governance, risk management, internal audit, information, and performance management.

I posted earlier on the report by the Financial Services Authority on the failure of the major UK bank, RBS.

The UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) has published its report on the causes of the failure of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). RBS was a massive bank and its failure was significant to the UK and global economy.