ECCB 2018-2019 Annual Report and Statement of Accounts

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

External Auditors An external auditor is appointed by the Board of Directors from a list of auditors approved by the Monetary Council. The selection is done through a process of tendering and due diligence exercises. The auditor serves for a period of three years.

The Monetary Council gave approval for the engagement of the KPMG auditing firm on 25 October 2017. The firm will serve the ECCB over the financial period 2017/2018 to 2019/2020.

The external auditor conducts an annual audit to provide the assurance that the financial statements fairly represent the Bank’s financial position. The external auditor further reports to the Board Audit and Risk Committee on its findings and recommendations. Integrity and Financial Reporting Disclosure and Transparency In keeping with international best practices, and in accordance with statutory requirements, the Bank publishes its statement of assets and liabilities on a monthly basis and the audited annual financial statements by the end of June each year. International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 9 Implementation The Bank adopted International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 9, Financial Instruments , effective 1 April , 2018. This standard introduced changes to the classification and measurement of financial instruments and replaced the incurred loss provisioning methodology under IAS 39 where provisions were made at the time that the loss is actually incurred. IFRS 9 now requires provisions to be made using an expected credit loss (ECL) approach, which requires an estimation of impairment for future credit losses based on probabilities of default and assessment of loss given default. Audit Committee Certification (ACC) Programme Members of the Board Audit and Risk Committee and selected staff of the ECCB completed the Audit Committee Certification (ACC) Programme over the period 30 April to 1 May 2018 in St Kitts and Nevis. The certification programme was facilitated by The Caribbean Governance Training Institute. The programme was geared specifically at equipping Audit Committee members, as well as professionals who work with the Audit Committee, with the tools to effectively execute the Committee’s functions by addressing current issues and challenges facing audit committees, best practices for audit committees, appropriate structure, membership and functioning. The ACC Programme also covered soft and technical skills; addressed the required qualifications of an effective audit committee chair; and how effective relationships among the Chair, committee members and management could be created and sustained. Such training provided the BARC members and the participating ECCB officers with the capacity to augment the deliverables of the Committee and by extension raise the overall governance and financial reporting process of the Bank.

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