Challenges of Establishing Effective Internal Audit in Credit Institutions (Case Study of One of the Iranian Banks)

The purpose of this research was to identify the challenges of establishing effective internal audit in credit institutions (a case study of one of the Iranian Banks) and to provide suggestions for improvement in order to provide a good basis for this independent, reassuring, realistic and advisory activity for increasing the value and improving the organization’s operations. The method of this research is a descriptive-analytic of survey type, and in terms of purpose is an applied research. In line with the research objectives, the twelve elements of effective internal audit are determined based on theoretical bases, and its conceptual model is depicted, after preparing the research questionnaire based on the above mentioned factors and verifying its validity and reliability, it was distributed among 105 senior and middle managers and inspectors and audit experts of the studied bank, then the gathering data of 97 questionnaires were analyzed by SPSS19 software, the appropriateness of the ten factors of the establishment of an effective internal audit in the bank was confirmed based on statistical tests, these factors are ranked respectively as: 1. Following-up, 2. Approach,  3. Objectives,  4. Reporting,  5. Organizational status,   6. Independence, 7. Domain,  8. Work relations with stakeholders, 9. Planning,      10. Bank's internal audit resources, then challenges and suggestions for improvement were provided.