April 28, 2003 News Archive

Agencies Issue Policy on Internal Audit and Outsourcing
The Fed, FDIC, Comptroller of the Currency and OTS issed an amended Interagency Policy Statement on the Internal Audit Function and its Outsourcing. The amended policy statement supercedes the Agencies' previous statement on the subject, bringing regulatory policy in line with with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and pertinent SEC regulations. Banking organizations subject to Section 36 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (those with assets of $500 million or more) are prohibited from outsourcing internal audit work to their external auditor. The policy also encourages institutions not explicitly subject to Section 36 to and who are not SEC registrants to refrain from outsourcing internal audit work to their external auditor, although some additional latitude is included in the policy statement for small nonpublic institutions without complex operations.

Fed Beige Book Released
The Board released its most recent Beige Report dated April 23, 2003 indicating subdued economic activity, with only a few Districts reporting any notable changes from the last report. Details are available in the full report, including individual Reserve Bank summaries.

De Novo Banks Page Revised
December 2002 peer data (PDF,104KB)has been added to the recently revised De Novo Banks page, which now also contains de novo forms, resources and regulatory guidelines.