The Irish Banking Crisis

An “audit failure” is a situation in which a professional auditor fails to detect a material error in the financial statements of the company they are auditing. The audit failure in the situation of Rita Crundwell the failure was exacerbated by the fact that the auditors continually signed off on the misstated statements for years. Crundwell is responsible for many of the deficiencies mentioned, such as the missing funds and the incorrect invoices. However, she is not the sole person responsible for this fraud. The lack of internal control is to blame, and this cannot be placed on a single person. The government should have separated duties and used

In a financial audit, the Auditor General is looking directly at the transactions and financial statements of the entity in search that the financial statements have been presented fairly with full disclosure and that they have met legislative authorities. With more than ninety-five audits performed on different government departments, Crown corporations and governments of the Yukon, Nunavut and Northwest territories, these financial statements are a great source in deciding whether or not these entities have been spending public funds appropriately. The Auditor General will come to a decision about whether or not the transactions have followed laws and will bring to the attention of Parliament anything believed to be of importance.

The financial crisis of 2007-2009 resulted from a variety of external factors and market incentives, in combination with the housing price bubble in the United States. When high levels of bank and consumer leverage appeared, rising consumption caused increasingly risky lending, shown in the laxity in the standard of securities ' screening and riskier mortgages. As a consequence, the high default rate of these risky subprime mortgages incurred the burst of the housing bubble and increased defaults. Finally, liquidity rapidly shrank in the United States, giving rise to the financial crisis which later spread worldwide (Thakor, 2015). However, in the beginning of the era in which this chain of events took place, deregulation was widely practiced, as the regulations and restrictions of the economic and business markets were regarded as barriers to further development (Orhangazi, 2014). Expanded deregulation primarily influenced the factors leading to the crisis. The aim of this paper is to discuss whether or not deregulation was the main underlying reason for the 2007/08 financial crisis. I will argue that deregulation was the underlying cause due to the fact that the most important origins of the crisis — the explosion of financial innovation, leverage, securitisation, shadow banking and human greed — were based on deregulation. My argument is presented in three stages. The first section examines deregulation policies which resulted in the expansion of financial innovation and

The financial crisis that happened during 2007-09 was considered the worst financial crisis in the world since the great depression in the 1930s. It leads to a series of banking failures and also prolonged recession, which have affected millions of Americans and paralyzed the whole financial system. Although it was happened a long time ago, the side effects are still having implications for the economy now. This has become an enormously common topic among economists, hence it plays an extremely important role in the economy. There are many questions that were asked about the financial crisis, one of the most common question that dragged attention was ’’How did the government (Federal Reserve) contributed to the financial crisis?’’

SAS 59, The Auditor’s Consideration of an Entity’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern (AICPA, Professional Standards, vol. 1, AU section 341) - The auditor is now required to document the conditions that substantiated the substantial doubt that the entity would continue to exist, elements of management’s plans that appear to be particularly

A review and an audit report are both a form of an attestation engagement. A Review, however, is less in scope so it provides a moderate level of assurance on the financial statements. It is considered a “sniff” of an audit, which comparatively provides reasonable assurance that no material misstatements occurred. Since a review deals with a limited scope, it does not provide the basis for expressing an opinion on the presentation of the

d. “The auditor's reliance on substantive tests to achieve an audit objective related to a particular assertion may be derived from tests of details, from analytical procedures, or from a combination of both. The decision about which procedure or procedures to use to achieve a particular audit objective is based on the auditor's judgment on the expected effectiveness and efficiency of the available procedures. For significant risks of material misstatement, it is unlikely that audit evidence obtained from substantive analytical procedures alone will be sufficient (PCAOB, AS 2305.09).”

Extensive research has determined that the banking industry is in an unstable state. The industry’s profits have

The high profile national and cross-border bank failures in the last few years (including Fortis, Lehman Brothers, Icelandic banks, Anglo Irish Bank and Dexia) revealed serious shortcomings

The case study General Mills Inc. - Understanding Financial Statements focuses on the most basic idea of finance analysis. This case is a brief look into the language that is used in the finance world and a start to interaction with auditors. In this case, KPMG LLP, the public accounting firm that was auditing their statements, had sent two opinion letters. The first letter was ensuring that both parties were aware that General Mills had internal control over financial reporting. The second opinion letter stated that to auditor’s knowledge, General Mills had correctly reported its financial statements. The statements given in this case study are known as the four general financial statements. Displayed in the case are the

The fear is that a going-concern opinion can hasten the demise of an already troubled company, reduce a loan officer’s willingness to grant a line of credit to that troubled company, or increase the point spread that would be charged if a company was granted a loan. Auditors are placed at the center of a moral and ethical dilemma: whether to issue a going-concern opinion and risk escalating the financial distress of their client, or not issue a going-concern opinion and risk not informing interested parties of the possible failure of the company. The hope is that issuing a going-concern opinion might promote timelier rescue activity.

The audit committee’s responsibility was to look over the accounting and financial reporting process as well as the financial statement audits; appoint, compensate and oversee the external auditor; and to ensure that the company has a whistleblower program. (p. 52) At first glance the committee could notice that something was not right with the company’s financial records. But nothing was done and nothing was said.

The majority of banking crises in last 30 years have been caused be deregulation of the banking industry followed by rapid unstable credit expansion leading to a unsustainable asset pricing bubbles. Scandinavian Banking Crisis was not exception. When the bubble bursts, the effects can ripple through the entire economy, and can cause massive disruption and loss in confidence.

The boom in construction was fueled by banks providing cheap credit to both builders and home buyers The total amount of mortgage loans shot up from sixteen billion euros in 2003 to one hundred six billion euros in 2008 (FN). The subprime lending allowed Irish citizens to qualify for loans that would not qualify in normal conditions. The EMU also allowed the Irish financial institutions to provide mortgages to these homeowners and builders at historically low rates. Many of these loans meant for business ventures were used to make risky investments on properties that could only be paid off if there was a continued rise in the values of these developments. Another issue with the loans made is that only a few banks were involved in this risky activity, placing a large burden on those banks. The total assets of the Irish banking system were five times larger than the size of the Ireland economy prior to the crisis. By September of 2008, a year after the housing bubble began to burst, Irish banks were no longer able to raise funds on the international markets, consequently sending Ireland into a severe crisis.

A company prepares financial statement to provide information about its financial position and performance. This information is in turn used by a wide range of stakeholders (such as investors, banks, customers, suppliers etc) in making economic decisions with respect to respective economic interest in the company. Typically, in terms of ownership by investment in shares of the company, shareholders though own the company but do not manage it. Therefore, the shareholder and other such stakeholders to get comfort in taking sound decision need independent assurance from the auditors that the financial statements reflect true and fair view of the company affairs in all material respects. Hence, in order to enhance the level of