You are here

Internal Audit Re-imagined: An insightful breakfast event organised by KPMG in Cyprus

10/02/2020 12:15

The Internal Audit, Risk & Compliance team of KPMG in Cyprus organised a breakfast event with the subject: “Internal Audit Re-imagined: Insights for a fast-changing profession”. The event took place on the 5th of February at the Landmark Nicosia, with the objective of examining how technology is reshaping the work of the internal auditor and what audit functions should do to remain relevant to a fast-changing environment.

Christos Vasiliou, Managing Director and Head of Advisory Services at KPMG in Cyprus and Panayiotis Peleties, Board Member and Chairman of KPMG Cyprus Audit Committee Institute, welcomed the attendees on behalf of the Firm and the Institute, respectively. Mr. Peleties talked about the importance for Audit Committees on focusing to such technology opportunities.

Antonis Bargilly, Board Member and Head of Internal Audit, Risk and Compliance Services at KPMG in Cyprus and Marilena Zarka, Principal at the Internal Audit, Risk and Compliance Services at KPMG in Cyprus, presented how Internal Audit activities can be elevated to benefit from the use of technology. In addition, Mr. Bargilly outlined the key factors of becoming a problem solver as compared to being a problem finder as an internal auditor and the importance of making the respective upgrade on the use of technology in the effort of reimagining internal audit. Ms. Zarka concluded the presentation with an analysis on the challenges addressed in adopting to new changes to stay up to speed with the evolving use of technology within internal audit.

George Zornas, Internal Audit Director of the Bank of Cyprus presented how the role and value of the internal audit of the Bank was enhanced and shared his experiences and the journey of the internal audit of the Bank in enabling technology within its activities.

Lastly, Grant Martin, Director at the Technology Risk of KPMG UK office, stressed the importance of using Data Analytics and Technology such as Robotic Process Automation, which enable audit teams to provide increasing insight to management, improve audit efficiency and consistency through standardisation and automation and enhance quality of audit evidence. In addition, he shared some technology use cases on Process Mining, Robotic Process Automation and Data Analytics based on experiences gained abroad.

AQ&A session coordinated by Ms. Zarka followed and the participants had the opportunity to raise questions and exchange views. A breakfast reception was offered to the participants.