The quality of management information and supervisory and financial reporting is dramatically affected by internal control systems, including internal audit programs and reviews by external auditors. Sound supervisory and financial reporting, good internal controls, and quality audits are becoming more important to financial services regulators because they directly affect regulators' ability to promptly identify institutions in distress and work toward a satisfactory resolution.
This shared understanding of the importance of sound audit and control practices led to an unprecedented level of cooperation among the international regulatory community--in this case, IOSCO, the Basel Committee, the IAIS, the European Commission (EC), the World Bank, and the Financial Stability Forum, which came to be known as the Monitoring Group.