. there is clearly a need for internal auditors to keep well abreast of these developments in financial institutions so that you can play the role expected of you in contributing to good corporate governance and, thus, to improved prospects for financial stability. australia ’ s corporations and governments, not to mention savers and investors, rely heavily on your work and it is crucial that it is done well. today ’ s agenda suggests that you should finish the day even better equipped to meet this challenge. i wish you a successful day. bis central bankers ’ speeches

of the bank. this is a key part of the governance structure. of course, these arrangements are not unique in any way. they are designed both to meet requirements for commonwealth authorities and also to be in line with good practice at commercial entities. they do, however, give us at the reserve bank an insight into some of the practical challenges facing other financial organisations. of particular importance to this audience, we also recognise the challenges involved with appointing, training and keeping an audit staff capable of assessing whether the controls are working as they should. our audit team has continually to improve its understanding of the breadth and depth of our business and changes to it. to help us maintain best practice, our auditors need to ensure that their technical skills remain up to speed. the iia ’ s training and certification processes play an important role in assisting this process. fostering improvements to the practice of identifying and managing risks, and to the audit processes that are an integral part of that, are central to development of policies aimed at bis central bankers ’ speeches fostering greater financial stability, both in australia and internationally. the financial stresses of the past few years have placed much greater emphasis on this aspect of our policy work in the reserve bank. there are few signs that the additional focus is going to lessen any time soon. if anything, it will increase. domestically, we have worked closely with the other members of the council of financial regulators on a number of initiatives including the financial claims scheme, the structure of financial market regulation and the role of central counterparties in the settlement of securities and derivatives transactions. internationally, through our membership of the financial stability board, the basel committee on banking supervision and the g - 20, along with colleagues in apra and the treasury, we have been involved in efforts to strengthen the international financial architecture, the rules governing the risks to which financial institutions are exposed and the buffers they are obliged to maintain in case things go wrong. the implications of these initiatives on the way in which financial institutions are managed are potentially far reaching. they are also important for internal auditors, in two respects. first, they are designed to make the institutions you are working for more resilient in the face of a wide range of pressures. if the changes are made effectively, they should help you sleep a little better at night. but second, many of the changes are complex and challenging, requiring important shifts in the way institutions operate, with even more emphasis on controls focused on risk than in the past