The Need for Improvement of External Audit Reports of Banks (The Case of Banks in Albania Which Mainly Belong to EU Banks)

Abstract

The financial crisis of 2008 highlighted weaknesses in risk management, control and governance of banks, auditing, and financial supervision. This led to increased consideration of the respective roles and interactions of banking supervisors with external and internal auditors, who are key contributors to market discipline. Auditors ensure that financial information is transparent and reliable while supervisors provide confidence in financial systems. On the other hand, auditors enable market players to make decisions based on this information and contribute to financial stability. In 2014, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision considered the interaction between supervisors and external auditors by enabling their relationships to improve the quality of banks' audits, financial statements, and effective supervision of the banking system. Since 2015, the Bank of Albania has adopted its regulatory framework almost fully compliant with these principles. This paper analyses the typology of issues identified in the external audit reports of the 10 largest banks in Albania for 2018 and needs for their improvement.