Authors: Kanellos Toudas, Ioanna Siouziou, Marios Menexiadis

Title: Internal audit and systems of internal audit in Greek Banks

Abstract

Prior studies have shown that internal audit plays an important role in the status of transparency  and be considered as a fundamental pillar for any organization in the world.The aim of this paper, is to investigate the necessity of internal audit and evaluation functions that can be served during the period before and after the procedure of a bank merger or acquisition.We have recorded the current legislative framework and a modern concept of internal control systems of credit institutions was given. We carried out a research onto the potential risks which may result from acquisitions and whether the internal control can work proactively to it.The functions of internal control before and after starting of a bank merger or acquisition and also whether internal auditors recognize the considered functions as those which must be implemented, were all considered.Thus, we formed a questionnaire based on Salameh et al (2011) and Karagiorgos et al (2011) that fully meets the intended purpose and the research questions, which was distributed to the staff of the Internal Audit Departments of the four representative Greek banks.The data obtained were processed using methods of descriptive statistics. The results record the value they can provide internal control in the smooth operation of a company in the stages before and after the procedure of a bank merger or acquisition, and reflected the opinion of the auditors on internal matters control according to their professional and cultural characteristics.