Internal audit

Technical Training on Banking for Internal Auditors

The programme will deepen participants’ understanding of banking products, transactions, systems, and financial risks so they can identify material exposures, evaluate controls, and conduct more effective audits.

Three daysDuration BeginnerLevel Banking process walkthroughs, audit case studies, data analysis exercises, control assessments, and group presentations.Learning format 4Modules Bank employeesAcademy learning

About this course

The programme will deepen participants’ understanding of banking products, transactions, systems, and financial risks so they can identify material exposures, evaluate controls, and conduct more effective audits.

Target participants: Internal Audit Department team

Proposed duration: Three days

Delivery approach: Banking process walkthroughs, audit case studies, data analysis exercises, control assessments, and group presentations.

Learning objectives

  • Explain how core banking activities generate income, costs, and risks.
  • Trace transactions through banking processes, systems, and accounting records.
  • Identify key risks and controls across lending, deposits, payments, treasury, and digital banking.
  • Design audit procedures that test both control design and operating effectiveness.
  • Use data analysis to identify exceptions and investigate unusual transactions.
  • Develop clear, evidence-based findings and practical recommendations.

Programme structure

1Day 1: Banking fundamentals, financial reporting, and credit operations
Day 1: Banking fundamentals, financial reporting, and credit operationsMap the Bank’s principal activities to their income sources, risks, and audit priorities.
Understanding bank financial statementsReview a simulated bank financial report and identify areas requiring further audit investigation.
Transaction processing and accounting controlsTrace a transaction from source documentation to the customer account, general ledger, and reporting output.
Credit lifecycle and lending productsConduct a lending-process walkthrough and identify key control points.
Auditing credit administration and portfolio qualityReview a sample credit file and prepare a risk and control matrix with proposed audit tests.
Credit impairment and expected credit lossesIdentify weaknesses in an impairment process and develop procedures to test selected inputs and controls.
2Day 2: Deposits, payments, treasury, and financial crime controls
Day 2: Deposits, payments, treasury, and financial crime controlsReview an account-opening and maintenance process for missing controls and inappropriate access.
Cash, branch, and reconciliation controlsInvestigate a simulated cash discrepancy and prepare an evidence-gathering plan.
Payments and settlement operationsTrace a payment and investigate aged unreconciled items or duplicate transactions.
Treasury products and operationsReview a treasury transaction from execution to settlement and identify control gaps.
Liquidity, interest rate, and foreign exchange risksAssess the completeness and reliability of a simulated asset and liability management report.
Financial crime and customer protection controlsReview a customer and transaction scenario and design tests of the relevant controls.
3Day 3: Digital banking, data analytics, and integrated audit execution
Day 3: Digital banking, data analytics, and integrated audit executionMap a banking process to its systems, interfaces, reports, and key dependencies.
Digital banking and electronic channelsInvestigate a digital transaction failure and assess whether reconciliation and customer remediation controls worked.
Access, change, and third-party controlsReview an access listing and change record to identify incompatible permissions and unsupported changes.
Audit data analyticsAnalyse a simulated dataset and document exceptions requiring investigation.
Designing effective audit proceduresDevelop an audit work programme for a selected banking process.
Audit findings and management engagementDraft and present a finding, then respond to a simulated management challenge.
Integrated banking audit simulationPresent key risks, audit tests, findings, and recommended actions to a simulated Audit Committee or senior management panel.

Prerequisites / requirements

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The programme will deepen participants\u2019 understanding of banking products, transactions, systems, and financial risks so they can identify material exposures, evaluate controls, and conduct more effective audits.

Target participants: Internal Audit Department team

Proposed duration: Three days

Delivery approach: Banking process walkthroughs, audit case studies, data analysis exercises, control assessments, and group presentations."]

Practical outputs

  • Banking product and process reference notes.
  • A banking risk and control matrix template.
  • A process walkthrough and transaction-tracing template.
  • Sample audit programmes for selected banking activities.
  • A data extraction and validation checklist.
  • Practical banking datasets and audit exercises.
  • An audit finding and action-tracking template.
  • A departmental improvement plan for applying the learning.

Expected outcomes

  • Explain how core banking activities generate income, costs, and risks.
  • Trace transactions through banking processes, systems, and accounting records.
  • Identify key risks and controls across lending, deposits, payments, treasury, and digital banking.
  • Design audit procedures that test both control design and operating effectiveness.
  • Use data analysis to identify exceptions and investigate unusual transactions.
  • Develop clear, evidence-based findings and practical recommendations.

Detailed programme information

Training content, practical exercises and delivery arrangements

Programme OverviewPurpose and target participants

The programme will deepen participants’ understanding of banking products, transactions, systems, and financial risks so they can identify material exposures, evaluate controls, and conduct more effective audits.

Target participants: Internal Audit Department team

Proposed duration: Three days

Learning OutcomesCapabilities participants will develop
1

Explain how core banking activities generate income, costs, and risks.

2

Trace transactions through banking processes, systems, and accounting records.

3

Identify key risks and controls across lending, deposits, payments, treasury, and digital banking.

4

Design audit procedures that test both control design and operating effectiveness.

5

Use data analysis to identify exceptions and investigate unusual transactions.

6

Develop clear, evidence-based findings and practical recommendations.

Detailed Training ProgrammeDaily modules, training content and practical application
Day 1: Banking fundamentals, financial reporting, and credit operations
1Day 1: Banking fundamentals, financial reporting, and credit operations
  • The banking business model: financial intermediation; retail, business, and corporate banking; deposits, lending, payments, treasury, and fee-based services. How products and delivery channels affect the Bank’s risk profile.
Practical application

Map the Bank’s principal activities to their income sources, risks, and audit priorities.

2Understanding bank financial statements
  • Structure of the balance sheet and income statement; interest income and expense; fees; operating costs; impairment; off-balance-sheet exposures. Understanding the difference between accounting balances, management reports, and prudential measures.
Practical application

Review a simulated bank financial report and identify areas requiring further audit investigation.

3Transaction processing and accounting controls
  • Transaction initiation, authorisation, posting, reconciliation, and reporting. General ledger and subsidiary ledger relationships; suspense accounts; manual journals; reversals; backdated entries; cut-off and exception handling.
Practical application

Trace a transaction from source documentation to the customer account, general ledger, and reporting output.

4Credit lifecycle and lending products
  • Origination, appraisal, approval, documentation, security perfection, disbursement, monitoring, restructuring, and recovery. Technical features of term loans, overdrafts, revolving facilities, and contingent facilities.
Practical application

Conduct a lending-process walkthrough and identify key control points.

5Auditing credit administration and portfolio quality
  • Approval limits, policy exceptions, conditions precedent, facility limits, repayment schedules, collateral records, covenant monitoring, arrears, restructures, and write-offs. Understanding warning signs and the evidence needed to investigate them.
Practical application

Review a sample credit file and prepare a risk and control matrix with proposed audit tests.

6Credit impairment and expected credit losses
  • Practical understanding of expected credit losses, staging, significant increases in credit risk, default indicators, probability of default, loss given default, exposure at default, forward-looking information, and management adjustments. Audit focus on data, governance, validation, and reconciliations.
Practical application

Identify weaknesses in an impairment process and develop procedures to test selected inputs and controls.

Day 2: Deposits, payments, treasury, and financial crime controls
7Day 2: Deposits, payments, treasury, and financial crime controls
  • Deposit products and account operations: current, savings, and term deposits; account opening; mandates; interest calculations; charges; account restrictions; dormant accounts; account closure.
Practical application

Review an account-opening and maintenance process for missing controls and inappropriate access.

8Cash, branch, and reconciliation controls
  • Cash holdings, teller and vault operations, cash transfers, ATM cash, physical verification, segregation of duties, cash differences, and reconciliation ownership.
Practical application

Investigate a simulated cash discrepancy and prepare an evidence-gathering plan.

9Payments and settlement operations
  • Domestic and cross-border payment flows; payment initiation, approval, processing, settlement, reconciliation, returns, and exceptions. Correspondent banking and nostro account monitoring.
Practical application

Trace a payment and investigate aged unreconciled items or duplicate transactions.

10Treasury products and operations
  • Money market placements and borrowings, foreign exchange transactions, and investment securities. Front-, middle-, and back-office responsibilities; deal capture; confirmations; settlement; valuation; limits; and reconciliations.
Practical application

Review a treasury transaction from execution to settlement and identify control gaps.

11Liquidity, interest rate, and foreign exchange risks
  • Sources of liquidity risk; maturity mismatches; funding concentration; liquidity buffers; interest rate repricing; and foreign exchange exposures. Roles of management committees and audit in reviewing the underlying governance and information.
Practical application

Assess the completeness and reliability of a simulated asset and liability management report.

12Financial crime and customer protection controls
  • Customer due diligence, beneficial ownership, risk assessment, screening, transaction monitoring, escalation, and record keeping. Internal audit’s role in assessing governance, coverage, data quality, and control effectiveness.
Practical application

Review a customer and transaction scenario and design tests of the relevant controls.

Day 3: Digital banking, data analytics, and integrated audit execution
13Day 3: Digital banking, data analytics, and integrated audit execution
  • Core banking systems and technology dependencies: interfaces, batch processing, automated calculations, system parameters, exception reports, and the relationship between business controls and IT controls.
Practical application

Map a banking process to its systems, interfaces, reports, and key dependencies.

14Digital banking and electronic channels
  • Mobile and internet banking, cards, ATMs, agency channels, and third-party integrations. Authentication, transaction limits, failed transactions, reversals, settlement, dispute handling, and customer notifications.
Practical application

Investigate a digital transaction failure and assess whether reconciliation and customer remediation controls worked.

15Access, change, and third-party controls
  • User provisioning and removal, privileged access, segregation of duties, periodic access reviews, system changes, vendor oversight, service-level monitoring, incident response, and business continuity.
Practical application

Review an access listing and change record to identify incompatible permissions and unsupported changes.

16Audit data analytics
  • Defining the audit question; obtaining complete and accurate data; validating extracts; matching records; identifying duplicates, unusual entries, limit breaches, dormant-account activity, and unresolved exceptions. Distinguishing analytical alerts from substantiated findings.
Practical application

Analyse a simulated dataset and document exceptions requiring investigation.

17Designing effective audit procedures
  • Risk assessment, process walkthroughs, control design assessment, operating-effectiveness testing, sampling, evidence quality, and documentation. Testing automated controls and the reliability of system-generated reports.
Practical application

Develop an audit work programme for a selected banking process.

18Audit findings and management engagement
  • Developing findings with clear criteria, condition, cause, consequence, and supporting evidence. Agreeing practical actions, accountable owners, deadlines, and follow-up evidence.
Practical application

Draft and present a finding, then respond to a simulated management challenge.

19Integrated banking audit simulation
  • Combining product knowledge, transaction tracing, financial information, control assessment, and data analysis in one assignment.
Practical application

Present key risks, audit tests, findings, and recommended actions to a simulated Audit Committee or senior management panel.

Training MethodologyDelivery approach described in the brief

Banking process walkthroughs, audit case studies, data analysis exercises, control assessments, and group presentations.

Expected Learning OutcomesTraining outcomes as specified in the brief
Explain how core banking activities generate income, costs, and risks.
Trace transactions through banking processes, systems, and accounting records.
Identify key risks and controls across lending, deposits, payments, treasury, and digital banking.
Design audit procedures that test both control design and operating effectiveness.
Use data analysis to identify exceptions and investigate unusual transactions.
Develop clear, evidence-based findings and practical recommendations.
Practical Case StudiesCase studies and exercises from the training brief
  • Case study 1 — Credit approval and disbursement exceptions A facility is disbursed with incomplete documentation and an unresolved approval condition. Participants trace the process, assess the authorisation trail, identify failed controls, and propose audit procedures.
  • Case study 2 — Interest and fee calculation errors Customer accounts contain inconsistent interest charges and manual adjustments. Participants examine product parameters, approved pricing, transaction records, and reconciliations to determine the scope of testing.
  • Case study 3 — Unresolved payment and reconciliation items A payment account contains aged differences, repeated reversals, and transactions without clear ownership. Participants assess exposure, supporting evidence, escalation, and resolution controls.
  • Case study 4 — Treasury control breakdown A foreign exchange transaction exceeds a limit and settles late. Participants examine dealing authority, independent monitoring, confirmation, settlement, and incident reporting.
  • Case study 5 — Digital banking exceptions Customers are debited for transactions that initially fail. Participants assess transaction status, automated reversals, settlement records, complaint handling, and the completeness of customer remediation.
Audit testing emphasis
Training Materials and DeliverablesParticipant deliverables described in the training brief

Training materials and participant deliverables

1Banking product and process reference notes.
2A banking risk and control matrix template.
3A process walkthrough and transaction-tracing template.
4Sample audit programmes for selected banking activities.
5A data extraction and validation checklist.
6Practical banking datasets and audit exercises.
7An audit finding and action-tracking template.
8A departmental improvement plan for applying the learning.
Assessment and customisationAssessment and follow-up guidance

Learning will be assessed through a pre-training knowledge check, practical exercises, and an integrated audit simulation.

Before delivery, the Academy training team will agree with the Head of Internal Audit on priority audit areas, participants’ experience, and the desired technical depth. Exercises will use anonymised or simulated information and will be aligned with the Bank’s products, systems, policies, and applicable requirements.

Delivery note: The three-day programme provides broad technical coverage. Detailed ECL model validation, specialist treasury valuation, and technical cybersecurity testing would require dedicated follow-on sessions.

Banking area / Key audit questions
  • Credit — Were facilities appropriately approved, documented, disbursed, monitored, and reported?
  • Deposits — Are account instructions, interest, fees, restrictions, and customer records correctly maintained?
  • Payments — Are transactions valid, authorised, accurately processed, settled, and reconciled?
  • Treasury — Are transactions within authority and limits, independently confirmed, correctly valued, and settled?
  • Financial reporting — Are balances complete, accurate, supported, and reconciled to underlying records?
  • Digital banking — Are transactions secure, correctly processed, reconciled, and resolved when exceptions occur?
  • Technology and third parties — Are access, changes, outsourced services, and continuity arrangements appropriately controlled?
  • Financial crime controls — Are controls appropriately designed, supported by reliable data, and operating as intended?

Assessments

Assessment requirements are provided with your learning materials.

Group activities

Activities and collaboration opportunities are available to enrolled employees where applicable.

Resources

Course materials are available through your learning account once access is granted.

I&M Rwanda Academy certificate

Certificate eligibility is subject to the course's completion and assessment requirements.