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Norms on eligibility,
empanelment and selection of
Statutory Central Auditors in Public Sector Banks
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(i) The audit firm shall have a minimum 7 full
time chartered accountants, of which at
least 5 should be full time partners exclusively associated with the
firm. The remaining 2 could be either exclusive partners or CA employees
with a continuous association with the firm for a period of one year. These
partners should have minimum continuous association with the firm i.e. one
each should have continuous association with the firm
at least for 15 years and 10 years,
two with a minimum of 5 years each and
one with a minimum of one year.
Four of the partners should be FCAs.
Also at least two of the partners should have minimum 15 and 10 years
experience in practice. (In case the paid Chartered Accountant available
with the firm without any break was admitted as a partner of the said firm
at a future date, his association with the firm as a partner will be
counted from the date of his joining the firm as a paid Chartered
Accountant.)
(ii)
The number of professional staff (excluding typists, stenographers,
computer operators, secretary/ies and sub-ordinate staff etc.), consisting
of audit and articled clerks with the knowledge in book-keeping and
accountancy and are engaged in outdoor audit should be 18.
(iii)
The standing of the firm should be of at least 15 years which would
be reckoned from the date of availability of one full time FCA continuously
with the firm.
(iv)
The firm should have minimum statutory central audit experience of 15
years of Public Sector Banks (before or after nationalisation) and/ or
by way of statutory branch audit thereof or that of statutory audit
experience of a private sector bank with deposits resources of not less
than Rs.500 crore. (In case any of the partner of an audit firm is
nominated / elected for a period of at least 3 years or more on the Board
of any public sector bank then his / her such experience for a maximum
period of three years will be considered as bank audit experience, provided
such experience has not been earned by him/ her concurrently i.e. when his
/ her firm was assigned statutory audit of any PSB, select all India
financial Institutions or RBI.)
(v)
The firm should have statutory audit experience of 5 years of the Public
Sector Undertakings (either Central or State Government undertaking).
(While
calculating such experience, more than one assignment given to a firm
during a particular year or more than one year's statutory audit (audits in
arrears) assigned to the firm will be reckoned, as one year experience
only, for the purpose of counting such experience.)
(vi)
At least two partners of the firm or its paid Chartered Accountants must
possess CISA / ISA qualification.
Note-
C&AG will empanel the Audit Firms based on the above parameters as on
January 1 of the relevant year and send the panel to RBI.
PROCEDURE FOR APPOINTMENT OF
STATUTORY AUDITORS IN PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS
Statutory
Central Auditors (SCAs)
1.
The number of SCAs to be appointed in PSB will be as under:
i)
Category “A” Banks (Large Banks viz. Bank of Baroda, Bank of
India, Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India and Union
Bank of India) shall not have more than 6 SCAs. However, in case of SBI the
number of SCAs shall not be more than 14.
ii)
Category “B” Banks (Medium Banks viz. Allahabad Bank,
Corporation Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of
Commerce, Syndicate Bank and UCO Bank) shall not have more than 5 SCAs,
and;
iii)
Category “C” Banks (Small Banks viz. Andhra Bank, Bank of
Maharashtra, Dena Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, United Bank of India,
Vijaya Bank, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad,
State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Travancore)
shall not have more than 4 SCAs.
Actual
numbers of SCAs to be appointed can be decided by respective boards subject
to the above limit.
2.
The cooling off period after completing the term of three years as SCA will
be of three years.
3.
The appointment of SCAs will be made on an annual basis, subject to their
fulfilling the eligibility norms prescribed by RBI from time to time and
also subject to their suitability.
4.
The Government has decided that from the financial year 2014-15, selection
and appointment of SCAs is delegated to individual Public Sector Banks.
5.
The procedure that will be followed for selection of SCAs by the PSBs is as
under :
a)
The eligible list of firms furnished by C&AG every year will be
examined by RBI.
b)
RBI will verify that the firm has minimum bank audit experience of 15 years
from its records.
c)
RBI will prepare separate list of rested, continuing and non continuing
eligible audit firms after excluding the name of firms who have been denied
audit by RBI/C&AG and the firms who have declined the offer of
appointment given by Public Sector Banks. The list of non continuing
eligible audit firms will be further split up into list of experienced
audit firms and new audit firms. Reserve bank will be giving Public Sector
Banks i) List of Continuing Firms (i.e. the list of audit Firms who have
not completed three years of audit ii) List of firms who are undergoing
rest/cooling iii) List of eligible, non continuing audit firms in two parts
viz. experienced audit firms and new audit firms.
d)
The audit firms applying for empanelment as SCAs in PSBs will be required
to give an undertaking that, in case of selection in PSBs, they would give
up the existing assignment, if any, in Private Banks/Foreign Banks/RBI/Financial
Institutions such as National Housing Bank, EXIM Bank etc. and they cannot
refuse appointment of PSBs once selected.
e)
The allotment of vacancies of SCA's shall be in the ratio of 60:40 between
'Experienced ' and ‘New’ audit firms. As regards ratio of
60:40, banks will round the number to the nearest round number and choose
auditors from the ‘Experienced’ and ‘New’ firm
list. For this purpose, an ‘Experienced’ firm is one which has
a Statutory Central Audit experience of any of the Public Sector Banks and
‘New Firm’ is one who does not have such experience.
f)
While making final selection, the PSBs will take into consideration the
following points:-
i.
To the extent possible, at least two audit firms having
their Head Office from the same place where the banks' HO/CO is located, to
be allocated.
ii.
Audit firms are not selected if they have retired from
the same bank before going under rest.
iii.
The firms whose partner/s are on the Boards of PSBs are
not appointed as auditors for the same PSB.
iv.
In case of SBI, only experienced audit firms are
considered as SCAs.
v.
An audit firm is eligible to be appointed as a Central/
Branch auditor of only one PSB during a particular year.
6.
Audit firm(s) selected by the PSBs after obtaining consent in writing from
the audit firm will be debarred for a period of 3 years for selection if
the firm refuses to accept the appointment without a reasonable ground,
that is ground not to the satisfaction of RBI.
7.
The above norms will be implemented during the selection process of SCAs
for the year 2014-15 and onwards.
8.
After selection, as per the statutory requirement, banks, in turn, are
required to forward the names of the selected SCAs to RBI for its prior approval
before their actual appointment.
9.
A feedback on the quality of audit of SCAs may be given by PSBs to RBI
after the annual audit of banks.
10.
Other guidelines
i)
In order to protect the independence of the auditors/audit firms, banks
will have to make the appointments of SCA for a continuous period of three
years subject to the firms satisfying the eligibility norms each year.
Banks cannot remove the audit firms during the above period without the
prior approval of the Reserve Bank of India.
ii)
All PSBs are required to have a Board approved policy for appointment of
statutory auditors and the same may be hosted on the bank’s web-site.
Banks are also required to ensure that the policy framed by the Board in
the matter of selection of auditors/audit firms for appointment of auditors
is strictly adhered to. Further, the list of firms selected for appointment
as statutory central auditors may be placed before the ACB for its
concurrence before it is forwarded to RBI for final approval.
Note : A full time
partner does not include a person who is:
(1)
A partner in other firms.
(2)
Employed full time/part time elsewhere, practicing in own name or engaged
in practice otherwise or engaged in other activity which would be deemed to
be in practice under Section 2 (2) of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949
A. Norms for the
empanelment of audit firms to be appointed as statutory branch auditors for
public sector banks (2013-14)
Category
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No. of CAs
exclusively associated with the firm (Full time)
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No. of partners
exclusively associated with the firm (full time) (Out of 2)
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Professional
staff
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Bank audit
experience
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Standing of the
audit firm
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(1)
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(2)
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(3)
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(4)
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(5)
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(6)
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I.
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5
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3
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8
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The firm or at least one of the
partners should have a minimum of 8 years experience of branch audit of a
nationalised bank and/ or of a private sector bank .
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8 years
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II.
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3
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2
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6
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The firm or at least one of the partners
should have preferably conducted branch audit of a nationalised bank or
of a private sector bank.
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6 years
(for the firm or at least one partner)
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III.
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2
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1
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4
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The firm or at least one of the CAs
should have preferably conducted branch audit of a nationalised bank or
of a private sector bank for at least 3 years
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5 years
(for the firm or at least one partner)
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IV.
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2
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2
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2
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Not necessary
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3 years
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Even proprietorship concern without
bank audit experience may be considered as hitherto.
(The proprietary concerns of Chartered Accountants with 1 paid CA, 2
professional staff and not having any statutory branch audit experience
of a nationalised bank or of a private sector bank will be treated at par
with the partnership firm after deducting their 3 years seniority from
the date of their establishment).
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B. PROCEDURE FOR APPOINTMENT OF STATUTORY BRANCH
AUDITORS IN PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS
1.
The norms for selection of branches of PSBs for statutory audit from the
year 2012-13 and onwards will be based on the following :
i.
Statutory branch audit of PSBs may be carried out for
all branches with advances of ` 20 crore & above and 1/5th of
the remaining branches covering a representative cross section of
rural/semi-urban/urban and metropolitan branches, predominantly including
branches which are not subjected to concurrent audit, so as to cover 90% of
advances of a bank. CPUs/LPUs/and other centralized hubs by whatever
nomenclature called would be included in the one fifth of the remaining
branches every year.
ii.
In respect of branches below the cut-off point, which
are subject to concurrent audit by chartered accountants, henceforth, LFARs
and other certifications done earlier by SBAs will now be submitted by the
concurrent auditors and such branches may not generally be subject to
statutory audit.
iii.
Going forward, in mutual discussions with GoI and SCAs,
based, inter alia, on the operational efficiency and robustness of CBS,
system driven identification of NPAs, and integrity of MIS, managements of
individual PSBs may decide on the threshold level of advances for the
purpose of selecting branches for statutory audit.
iv.
Progressively, the threshold level of advances may be
increased so that the number of branches to be taken up for statutory audit
is phased down over a period of time.
2.
The following procedure will be followed for appointment of statutory
branch auditors (SBAs) in public sector banks (PSBs):
i.
The list of eligible auditors/audit firms will be
prepared by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) as per
the norms prescribed by RBI.
ii.
The above list will be subjected to scrutiny by RBI for
identifying the continuing and rested firms and excluding audit firms
against whom adverse remarks/disciplinary proceedings are pending or who
have been denied audit.
iii.
RBI will, thereafter, forward the final list of all
eligible auditors/audit firms to PSBs for selection.
iv.
The PSBs will select the required number of branch
auditors/audit firms. Banks will be required to clearly advise the audit
firms selected for consideration of appointment that each audit firm can
take up audit assignment (branch audit) in one PSB only. The audit firm
should give their consent in writing for consideration of appointment in
the bank concerned for the particular year and the subsequent continuing
years.
v.
The consent given by an audit firm will be treated as irrevocable
and request, if any, from audit firms for changing the bank, after giving
its consent to the bank concerned will not be entertained.
vi.
After the selection of branch auditors, PSBs will be
required to recommend the names of both continuing and selected branch
auditors to RBI for seeking its prior approval before their actual
appointment, as per statutory requirement.
3.
SBAs will have a maximum tenure of four years. The appointment of SBAs will
be made on an annual basis, subject to their fulfilling the eligibility
norms prescribed by RBI from time to time and also subject to their
suitability.
4. The number of eligible auditors / audit
firms is more than the number of branches to be audited at the following 33
centres (viz. Mumbai, Kolhapur, Pune, Solapur, Thane, Kolkata, Chennai,
Coimbatore, Delhi/ New Delhi, Ajmer, Bikaner, Jaipur, Kota, Udaipur,
Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Raipur, Faridabad,
Gurgaon, Panchkula, Panipat, Sonipat, Bangalore, Ernakulam, Indore, Nagpur,
Ludhiana, Jodhpur, Bhilwara, and Ghaziabad). In such centres, the auditors/
audit firms will be put to a period of compulsory rest for two years after
completion of four years of continuous branch audit. In other centres,
where the number of eligible auditors / audit firms is less than the number
of branches to be audited, the branch auditors on completion of four years
of continuous branch audit will be subjected to the policy of rotation.
5.
While allotting branches, banks are required to select auditors/audit firms
which are in close proximity to their offices/branches. Banks are also
required to have a suitable mix of various categories of auditors / audit
firms while selecting the branch auditors keeping in view the size of the
branches to be audited.
6.
As regards statutory branch audit to be carried out by SCAs, banks will
allot the top 20 branches(to be selected strictly in order of the level of
outstanding advances) in such a manner as to cover a minimum of 15% of
total gross advances of the bank by SCAs.
C. General Guidelines applicable to SBAs
(i)
All PSBs are required to have a Board approved policy for appointment of
statutory auditors and the same may be hosted on the bank’s web-site.
Banks are also required to ensure that the policy framed by the Board in
the matter of selection of auditors/audit firms for appointment of auditors
is strictly adhered to. Further, the list of firms selected for appointment
as statutory branch auditors may be placed before the ACB/Board of bank
before for its concurrence before it is forwarded to RBI for final
approval.
(ii)
The policy of one audit firm for one PSB will be continued. Accordingly an
audit firm will be eligible to be appointed as a central/branch auditor of
only one PSB during a particular year.
(iii)
In order to protect the independence of the auditors/audit firms, banks
will have to make the appointments of branch auditors for a continuous
period of four years subject to the firms satisfying the eligibility norms
each year. Banks cannot remove the audit firms during the above period
without the prior approval of the Reserve Bank of India.
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