With the lockdown extended till May 3 and impacting business activities, bankers have sought permission for remote audit of branches as part of the statutory audit for the annual closing exercise.

Noting that bank branches are working only on a limited scale, the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) has written to the Reserve Bank of India that it would be a challenge for the branch statutory auditors to physically cover all the required number of branches for statutory audit within the stipulated timeframe.

“We, therefore, suggest that banks be given the discretion to select a minimum of 50 branches or more covering 60 per cent of the credit portfolio of the bank as a whole,” said IBA Chief Executive Sunil Mehta in a recent letter to RBI Deputy Governor MK Jain.

The IBA has also suggested that branch statutory auditors be allowed to conduct operations from a remote location, relying largely on the data available in the core banking solution (CBS), and physically visit the branches only for urgent and unavoidable matters.

“Alternatively, branches can provide the required data and documents through electronic mode also,” it has suggested, adding that at the time of consolidation, the Central Statutory Audit can always access the CBS data or other sources for any further clarification and verification.

Typically, as part of the annual closing exercise, statutory audit is conducted every year of select bank branches with over ₹20 crore of advances and one fifth of the remaining branches. For this, branch statutory auditors visit branches to verify and certify the related annual closing returns.

But with the current crisis arising out of the pandemic, especially in view of social distancing, the IBA has sought the relaxation that would allow both the banks and statutory auditors to complete the annual closing exercise without too much disruption.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW