Internal Auditors: Checking Everyone but Themselves, CFO.com
The Institute of Internal Auditors is considering providing additional guidance and less expensive ways for companies to start conducting assessments of their internal audit function to comply with The IIA's Standard 1300, Quality Assurance and Improvement Program, after an international survey revealed that only a third of respondents have instituted the program within their companies, and nearly 25 percent have no plans to implement it at all. (Note: For further information on Standard 1300, see eFocus’ April 2006 feature article, “The Quality Standard: A Matter of Choice”.)

What Should Your Business Continuity Efforts Focus On? IT Compliance Institute
This Q&A with an expert auditor highlights the importance of determining what absolutely must be in place to ensure the organization’s survival, and ensuring that plans and programs are in place to deal with a significant disruption to operations.

Enterprise Resource Planning Audits, IT Compliance Institute
In this Q&A, an expert auditor explains the distinctions between the classical approach to auditing standalone systems versus developing a program to review ERP, and offers advice for key considerations when developing audit programs for ERP systems.

Unclaimed Property Compliance for Financial Services Companies, Deloitte
Banks, asset managers, insurance companies, and securities firms could be on the regulatory hook if they fail to develop and implement effective policies and procedures for identifying unclaimed property, and take appropriate steps to return such property to its rightful owners. This article discusses ways to effectively mitigate this often-overlooked potential area of risk. (Free registration required.)

RM 101: Measuring Risk, RM Magazine
According to this risk management expert, quantification of risk requires a “large dose of common sense” fundamentally making it an intuitive process. This runs counter to what most auditors, regulators, and analysts want to hear.

Weathering the Odds, Treasury&Risk
Storm Exchange, a new electronic weather risk exchange, has the potential to make using weather derivatives available to more industries. The exchange offers subscribers 500 industry-specific indices which track conditions that could directly or indirectly affect an industry’s earnings—for example, the airline industry affected by rain delays, the insurance industry affected by weather-related damages, or major construction projects that come to a halt during bad weather.

Strategic Alignment of IT & Security - Yield Compliance by Default, IT Compliance Institute
This paper provides recommendations for creating a culture of cost effective, continuous risk management throughout your organization.

Middle Man, the IT CFO, CFO.com
The IT CFO is a new position that has emerged between Finance and IT. By monitoring IT costs and assisting in projects and assessments so that managers can make better-quality decisions, the IT CFO can smooth the friction between these two departments.

U.S. IPO Market Strong In 2007, With Plenty Of Tech Startups, Investor's Business Daily
Since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the IPO market is making a steady comeback and technology is playing a much bigger part in this year’s IPO market than it has in the past six years.

Seven Strategies for Compliance Change Management, IT Compliance Institute
SOX is arguably the biggest regulatory driver for enterprise-wide change management practices and its attending discipline. Of recent concern is direct access by IT staff to applications any regulated data since any data-level change might go unrecorded. Strategies built on the discipline of change management may hold the answer to this and other compliance-related issues.

Whistleblowers–When Workers Speak Out, Inc.com
There is increasing discrepancy around the definition of the term, “whistleblower” as employers are becoming more confused about when to use the term, and how to protect their company if a claim is made.

Security and regulatory compliance technologies need to converge, IT Security News
This article makes a case for converging security and regulatory compliance technologies in an effort to reduce the manual and redundant efforts of IT security, operations, and audit teams.

Research Offers Five Key Ways IT Can Drive Competitive Advantage, Business Wire
This research identifies the five IT strategies that top performers pursue to create world-class organizations and establish competitive advantage.

10 things to look for in an anti-spyware application, TechRepublic
With over 79% of US enterprise PCs infected with spyware, its cost to business via lost productivity and data loss is outpacing viruses. This article provides specific insight into the tools, utilities, and features you should seek when selecting the right anti-spyware tools and platform for your enterprise. (Free registration required)

10 questions to ask when a technology solution is deployed by non-IT staff, TechRepublic
What does an IT professional do when called upon to integrate or support a solution that your department didn’t deploy? This article provides the ten key questions to ask when you find yourself facing the serious liabilities that often accompany this dilemma.

Surplus Lines Bill Passes House, National Underwriter P&C
The industry was highly supportive of a bill that unanimously passed the House last month reforming regulation of the surplus lines and reinsurance markets. Under the bill, home state regulators are required to allocate any taxes collected on the coverage to the other involved states -- making it easier for sophisticated purchasers to access the surplus lines market; and, in some cases, reducing taxes on these transactions.

New York Governor Spitzer Focusing on Med Mal Reform, Business Insurance
Given an already-distressed market and the New York Insurance Department’s recent approval of a 14% increase in med-mal insurance rates for physicians, the Governor has mandated a task force to provide recommendations, by year-end, aimed at controlling the causes of high medical liability costs.

NAIC Adopts Viatical Settlements Model Act Revisions, NAIC News Release
Last month, the NAIC adopted amendments to the Viatical Settlements Model Act aimed a strengthening several consumer protections and imposing a five-year ban settling a life insurance policy with specified elements indicative of a Stranger-Originated Life Insurance (STOLI) transaction – which is traditionally defined as life insurance policies manufactured for the purpose of settling in the secondary market.

Center for Audit Quality Issues Alert Regarding FAS 158 Covering Pension Reporting
SFAS 158 moves retirement benefit plan funding deficits or surpluses from the footnotes onto the face of the sponsoring employer’s balance sheet – a change that was required for public companies’ calendar-year end 2006 financial statements. The Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) issued an alert last month after learning that some entities did not implement the transition provisions as required by the standard; however, they anticipated that the SEC staff will not request amended filings provided certain conditions are met to correct the misapplication of the standard.

Retirement Security for Life Act of 2007 and Its Potential Effect On Annuities
In May, Representatives Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) and Phil English (R-PA) introduced the Retirement Security for Life Act to help curtail the impact of deficient retirement funds of Baby Boomers by amending the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 covering annuities to create federal tax incentives designed to encourage individuals to invest in individual life annuities.

AIA Hails Introduction Of Optional Federal Charter Legislation, American Insurance Association
The American Insurance Association (AIA) applauded the efforts by Sens. John Sununu (R-NH) and Tim Johnson (D-SD) for reintroducing “The National Insurance Act of 2007,” legislation designed to modernize insurance industry regulation by providing an optional federal charter (OFC) for insurers.

Should you “plug in” your board of directors? ABA Banking Online
The compiling of data and development of board books is a time consuming process. Traditionally, these bound paper books are needed up to a week in advance which can be a challenge due to delays in receiving necessary information. An emerging trend is the introduction of board portals – secure websites allowing company directors to log in and view company data needed for board meetings.

Third-Party Arrangements, FDIC: Supervisory Insights
Prosperous third party relationships can improve competitiveness, provide diversification, and strengthen the safety and soundness of insured institutions. Key to a successful third party arrangement is execution of an effective risk management strategy. Failure to do so can result in significant risks, like financial loss, litigation, and reputational damage.

Banks Using Security to Increase Customer Trust and Their Bottom Lines, Bank Systems & Technology
Over the past year, a heightened sense of awareness surrounding bank fraud is causing many banks to change their approach to security. Information security is not solely an IT function anymore, but is becoming an industry-wide core business priority.

Wind Hazard Insurance, FDIC: Supervisory Insights
In today’s environment, the banking industry can no longer rely on real estate as loan collateral with the expectation that hazard insurance will mitigate risk of loss from catastrophic damage as it has in the past. The new reality is characterized by increased insurance cost and a lack of availability of hazard insurance in some areas, and is having an economic impact for coastal real estate, especially in Florida.

Fraud: Mutual Bank Scams Point To Flaws in IPO Process, U. S. Banker
Mutual bank conversions can be profitable for depositors, who are offered pre-IPO shares at a discount. This finding prompted a former Wall Street exec to hatch a scheme to open deposit accounts in associates' names at 63 mutual banks in over 20 states, then cash in on the post-IPO stock. While U.S. attorneys recently put an end to his ten-year, $11-million crime spree, regulators say they have no plans to review the IPO process.