Internal Audit in Banking Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Internal Audit Managers, Senior Internal Auditors and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-A-149

Before you join: Participants should have practical experience in internal audit, risk management, compliance, finance, operations or control functions within a bank, lender, insurer or comparable regulated financial institution.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Bank internal audit functions must provide independent assurance over risks that can affect capital, liquidity, customers, regulatory standing and operational resilience. Chief audit executives and senior auditors need to determine where assurance is most needed, test whether controls work as designed, and report findings that prompt timely management action. In banking, this means addressing credit quality, treasury activities, payments, financial crime, financial reporting, technology and outsourced services while maintaining independence from first- and second-line management.

This course develops the methods used to lead and perform risk-based internal audits in banks and financial institutions. Participants work through the IIA Global Internal Audit Standards, the Three Lines Model, audit universe design, risk assessment, annual planning, engagement planning, control testing, sampling and evidence evaluation. Specialist modules address credit risk, IFRS 9 governance, treasury and markets, liquidity, payment operations, anti-money-laundering controls, cybersecurity, regulatory reporting and audit issue follow-up. Participants learn to build risk and control matrices, frame audit observations using condition, criteria, cause and consequence, and calibrate issue ratings against risk appetite and customer harm.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with bank cases, control-testing scenarios, group analysis and reporting workshops. Cases reflect realistic audit assignments, such as reviewing loan underwriting exceptions, testing sanctions-screening governance, tracing prudential returns and assessing privileged-access controls. Participants leave with a practical internal audit toolkit containing reusable planning, testing, reporting and follow-up materials. The course is particularly suitable for auditors moving into banking assignments, audit managers preparing for broader responsibility, and risk professionals who need to understand how internal audit assesses their control environment.

What you will be able to do

  • Apply the IIA Global Internal Audit Standards to a banking audit function
  • Construct a risk-based audit universe and annual audit plan
  • Design audit engagements using risk and control matrices
  • Test banking controls using walkthroughs, sampling and evidence criteria
  • Assess credit, treasury, liquidity and operational-risk control frameworks
  • Audit financial crime, technology, cybersecurity and data-governance controls
  • Evaluate financial reporting and prudential reporting control evidence
  • Communicate audit findings through condition-criteria-cause-consequence reporting

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produce risk-based audit plans suitable for bank audit committee review
  • Assess control failures across credit, treasury, payments and financial crime
  • Write clearer findings with defensible evidence and proportionate issue ratings
  • Lead audit engagements using structured planning and quality-review methods
  • Build credibility with risk owners, senior management and audit committees

For your organisation

  • Improves audit coverage of material banking risks and regulatory priorities
  • Strengthens challenge of credit, liquidity, conduct and financial-crime controls
  • Produces more consistent audit working papers, findings and action tracking
  • Identifies control weaknesses before they become losses, breaches or customer harm
  • Supports more useful audit committee reporting on themes and residual risks

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can position a banking internal audit function within sound governance, independence and quality arrangements.

  • IIA Global Internal Audit Standards applied to a bank audit function
  • Three Lines Model roles for boards, management and internal audit
  • Audit committee mandates, charters, independence and unrestricted access arrangements
  • Chief audit executive responsibilities under board-approved internal audit charters
  • Quality assurance and improvement programme requirements, internal and external assessments
  • Ethics, confidentiality and objectivity safeguards when auditing sensitive bank activities

Participants can create a risk-based audit universe and prioritised annual audit plan.

  • Risk-based audit universe structured by legal entities, products and processes
  • Residual-risk scoring using impact, likelihood, control strength and change indicators
  • Annual audit plan allocation against risk appetite and regulatory priorities
  • Dynamic planning triggers from incidents, losses, findings and business change
  • Coverage maps linking auditable entities to prudential and conduct risks
  • Resource plans matching specialist skills, budgets and engagement delivery dates

Participants can plan audit engagements and obtain sufficient, reliable evidence for defensible conclusions.

  • Engagement objectives translated into auditable risks, controls and test procedures
  • Process walkthroughs documenting end-to-end flows, systems, handoffs and exceptions
  • Risk and control matrices distinguishing preventive, detective and corrective controls
  • Sampling approaches: judgemental, statistical, targeted and data-driven selection methods
  • Evidence evaluation using relevance, reliability, sufficiency and corroboration criteria
  • Working papers supporting findings, supervision, review and retention requirements

Participants can assess lending, credit-risk management and expected-credit-loss control arrangements.

  • Credit lifecycle controls from origination, approval and collateral through collections
  • Underwriting tests covering affordability, ratings, covenants and delegated authorities
  • IFRS 9 staging, expected credit loss governance and model oversight
  • Watchlist, forbearance and non-performing exposure controls assessed against policy
  • Collateral valuation, perfection, monitoring and concentration risk control testing
  • Loan file exceptions traced to risk acceptance and remediation evidence

Participants can audit key controls over treasury, trading, liquidity and balance-sheet management.

  • Treasury control frameworks for liquidity, funding, interest-rate and market risks
  • Trading desk controls over limits, valuation, confirmations and independent price verification
  • Asset-liability management governance, behavioural assumptions and liquidity stress testing
  • Basel liquidity ratios examined through reporting lineage and control evidence
  • Derivative lifecycle testing from trade capture to collateral and settlement
  • Segregation of duties across front office, risk control and operations

Participants can evaluate operational resilience and control effectiveness across banking operations.

  • Payment processing risks across initiation, sanction screening, settlement and reconciliation
  • Reconciliation controls for suspense accounts, nostro breaks and aged exceptions
  • Outsourcing oversight tested through due diligence, service levels and exit plans
  • Business continuity controls assessed against recovery objectives and scenario tests
  • Complaint handling and conduct risk controls traced from root causes
  • Operational loss data analysed for recurring control failures and themes

Participants can test anti-money-laundering, sanctions and anti-bribery control frameworks.

  • Customer risk-rating controls tested across onboarding, review and event triggers
  • Know-your-customer files assessed for ownership, purpose and source-of-funds evidence
  • Sanctions screening governance covering list updates, matching thresholds and alert disposition
  • Transaction monitoring scenarios reviewed for coverage, calibration and investigation quality
  • Suspicious activity escalation controls tested without compromising reporting confidentiality
  • Anti-bribery controls assessed for third parties, gifts and high-risk relationships

Participants can scope and test technology controls that support critical banking services.

  • General IT controls over access, changes, operations and third-party services
  • Privileged access reviews tested using joiner-mover-leaver population completeness
  • Cybersecurity audit scope aligned to threat scenarios and critical assets
  • Data analytics tests identify duplicate payments, unusual journals and override patterns
  • Model risk governance assessed for inventory, validation, monitoring and change control
  • Cloud control assurance addresses shared responsibility, resilience and data location

Participants can assess controls supporting financial statements, regulatory returns and management information.

  • Financial close controls tested for journals, reconciliations, estimates and review
  • Prudential reporting lineage traced from source systems to regulatory returns
  • IFRS 9 governance assessed across data, models, overlays and disclosures
  • Capital and liquidity reporting controls examined for completeness and approvals
  • Management information challenged through reconciliation, variance analysis and data-quality testing
  • Finance transformation risks audited around migration, parallel runs and cutover

Participants can report material issues clearly and validate whether corrective actions address root causes.

  • Findings written with condition, criteria, cause, consequence and agreed action
  • Root cause analysis separates symptom correction from sustainable control remediation
  • Issue ratings calibrated against risk appetite, customer harm and regulatory exposure
  • Closing meetings secure factual accuracy, ownership, deadlines and management responses
  • Audit committee reports communicate themes, coverage gaps and overdue actions
  • Follow-up validation tests action closure and residual-risk acceptance decisions
  • Personal application plans prioritise changes for the next audit cycle

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Banking audit universe and risk-scoring template
  2. Annual risk-based audit plan model
  3. Audit engagement planning and risk-control matrix
  4. Control-testing and evidence-evaluation checklist
  5. Audit finding and issue-rating template
  6. Corrective-action follow-up tracker

Who should attend

  • Internal Audit Managers — responsible for directing banking audit portfolios and teams
  • Senior Internal Auditors — preparing to lead complex financial-services audit engagements
  • Chief Audit Executives — strengthening audit strategy, governance and committee reporting
  • Risk and Compliance Managers — understanding internal audit expectations for control assurance
  • Credit, Treasury and Finance Auditors — extending specialist assurance across bank risk areas
  • External Auditors Entering Banking — building internal-control knowledge specific to financial institutions

Skills and tools covered

Risk-based audit planningControl testingCredit risk auditingFinancial crime assuranceIT audit controlsAudit reporting

Tools and standards

IIA Global Internal Audit Standards, IIA Three Lines Model, COSO Internal Control Framework, Basel Committee Corporate Governance Principles

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short technical briefings followed by bank-focused case work, group exercises, audit-planning workshops and control-testing simulations. Participants analyse audit evidence, build risk and control matrices, select testing approaches and draft findings from realistic scenarios. Instructor feedback focuses on audit judgement, evidence quality, issue calibration and communication with management. Application planning at the end of the course helps participants identify specific changes to make to their next banking audit assignment.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience in internal audit, risk management, compliance, finance, operations or control functions within a bank, lender, insurer or comparable regulated financial institution. Familiarity with basic audit terminology, financial statements, banking products and internal controls is assumed. Participants should be able to read policies, process maps and management reports. Prior knowledge of the IIA Global Internal Audit Standards, Basel rules, IFRS 9, statistical sampling or data analytics is helpful but not required. No programming, cybersecurity qualification or previous chief audit executive experience is required.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should have some exposure to audit, risk, compliance, finance or banking operations. The course assumes familiarity with basic controls and banking terminology, but does not require prior specialist knowledge of Basel rules, IFRS 9 or IT audit.

Participants should bring a laptop if possible, along with examples of non-confidential audit plans, control issues or reporting challenges they wish to improve. Course materials are provided, and no specialist software is required.

The course suits internal auditors working in banks, lenders and other financial institutions, especially those moving into senior auditor or audit manager roles. It also benefits risk, compliance and finance professionals who work with internal audit teams.

General audit courses focus mainly on universal audit methods and standards. This course applies those methods to banking risk areas including credit, liquidity, treasury, payments, financial crime, prudential reporting and technology controls.

Participants can use the templates and methods to improve audit planning, engagement scoping, control testing, issue writing and action follow-up. The course materials can be adapted to an upcoming audit assignment or annual planning cycle.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided among instructor briefings, banking cases, group analysis, testing scenarios, reporting work and application planning across the modules.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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