barclays bank plc | 3€¦ · · 2017-07-30barclays bank plc | 3 . barclays bank plc ... between...

Barclays Bank PLC | 1


1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 3

2. BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................... 3

2.1. Barclays .......................................................................................................................... 3

2.2. Barclays: Finance ........................................................................................................... 4

2.3. External Audit Services .................................................................................................. 4

3. REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL: INSTRUCTIONS FOR FIRMS ..................................................... 4

3.1. General Terms of the RFP .............................................................................................. 5

3.2. RFP Timescales .............................................................................................................. 7

3.3. RFP Evaluation Criteria .................................................................................................. 8

3.4. Tender Contacts ............................................................................................................ 9

3.5. Acknowledgement and Intent to Respond .................................................................... 9

3.6. RFP Questions/Clarifications ......................................................................................... 9

3.7. References: .................................................................................................................. 10

3.8. RFP Response Submission ........................................................................................... 11

3.9. RFP Presentations and Feedback Sessions .................................................................. 12

3.10. Other Due Diligence Activities ................................................................................... 12

3.11. Due Diligence on Barclays: ......................................................................................... 12

3.11.1. Virtual Data Room ................................................................................................... 12

3.11.2. Site Visits ................................................................................................................. 12

3.12. Rules of Engagement ................................................................................................. 12

4. BARCLAYS REQUIREMENTS ............................................................................................ 13

5. RFP QUESTIONS .............................................................................................................. 14

RFP QUESTIONS: PART 1 .................................................................................................... 15

RFP QUESTIONS: PART 2: DETAILED RESPONSE ................................................................. 20

RFP QUESTIONS: PART 3: COMMERCIAL and FEES ............................................................ 21

APPENDIX A: INTENT TO RESPOND .................................................................................... 22

APPENDIX B: RFP QUESTION SUBMISSION FORM ............................................................. 23

APPENDIX C: MEETING MINUTES TEMPLATE ..................................................................... 24

APPENDIX D: AUDIT & ASSURANCE PROFILE TEMPLATE: .................................................. 25

APPENDIX E: STATUTORY AUDIT CUSTOMERS ................................................................... 26


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1. Please provide the following details:

2. Please provide your Corporate structure (including subsidiaries, parent companies, geographies, etc.) showing where the contracting entity fits into the overall group structure;

3. Please advise of any legal claims made against your global organisation or any other litigation you have been involved with over the last 5 years related to your Audit and Assurance services for financial institutions.

4. Please advise of any partner or customer contractual disputes your global organisation has been involved with over the last 5 years related to your Audit and Assurance services for financial institutions.

5. Please provide an organisation chart for your Audit and Assurance function.

6. Please provide detail on your Audit and Assurance geographic presence using the template in Appendix D.

7. If you were selected as Barclays’ Statutory Auditor, please advise on what approximate % of your Audit and Assurance revenue would be represented by Barclays.

8. If you were selected as Barclays’ Statutory Auditor, please advise on how Barclays would rank as a customer of your Audit and Assurance services customer in terms of revenue i.e. top 3, top 5, top 10?

9. Please describe your process and approach for achieving independence in time to support the 2017 audit.


10. Please advise of any immediate concerns you have on achieving independence and how you plan to resolve.

11. Please describe your approach for ensuring and maintaining independence during the term of the relationship.

12. Please describe the contracting approach you propose for confirming commitment:

Upon selection (pre-independence);

Upon appointment (post-independence);

Commencing services;

Ongoing BAU

13. Barclays’ preferred approach for the contract structure would be a master agreement between Barclays Bank PLC and the parent entity of your organisation. This agreement would cover auditing services globally, save where a specific agreement is required in a particular jurisdiction for regulatory and/or tax reason. Where a local agreement is required, this local agreement would be subject to the terms of the master agreement which would only be varied to comply with local laws and regulations. Please advise on:

a) if the proposed structure set out in question 13 above presents any issues for your firm? If it does, please provide your proposed solution for a global auditing services agreement; and

b) what would be the key legal terms and conditions you require for the contract if you were selected (whether using Barclays’ standard terms and conditions as the starting point or your Firm’s proposed solution) and a brief explanation of why such terms are required.

14. Please identify the controls which will be applied to the audit services which will ensure our requirements are met and quality of service is maintained (i.e. service level regimes, etc.).

15. Please confirm what insurance policies and policy limits (per event and aggregate) you carry for the following:

Public liability;

Professional liability;

Employers liability;

Fidelity

Other relevant insurance policies

16. How long have you been providing Statutory Audit services to financial institutions?

17. Using the template in Appendix E, please provide a list of FTSE 100 customers (by sector) and all banking clients globally that you have provided Statutory Audit services to over the past 3 years.

18. Are you currently involved in any transition activities for customers of similar size and scale to Barclays?


19. Please provide a high level description of your standard audit and assurance processes, policies, methodology and tools and templates (including any internal quality review/assurance programmes).

20. Please provide the following details on issues raised by your internal Quality Assurance team:

On average, how many issues are raised on the audits that you perform and what types of issues typically arise?

Please advise of any actions taken in response to thematic issues which have been identified;

Please identify issues related to your control environment and any compliance related issues.

21. How do you control audit quality of the teams in different regions and how is this incorporated centrally?

22. How do you coordinate operations across multiple national jurisdictions and resolving different points of view on technical matters?

23. Please describe how specifically audit quality impacts on the remuneration of the audit partners/managers (i.e. what sort of weighting is applied) and is this consistent across the major operations?

24. Does the lead partner have visibility of the quality metrics (either internal or external) of the key global locations?

25. Please advise on how you have fared in the Audit Quality Review and PCAOB exercises, and the associated impact with respect to your global firm, and entities in the UK, US, APAC and South Africa. As part of your response, please address the following:

Criticisms you have received, especially with respect to financial institution audits;

Quality assurance metrics on externally rated assignments.

26. Please set out your record in acquiring and losing statutory audit clients in those areas covered by question 17.

27. Please briefly advise on the top 6 issues you believe the financial services audit industry is currently facing and how your audit approach will manage/mitigate/minimise them.

28. Please detail your firm’s technical capabilities for provision of audit services to complex financial institutions and any investments you are making to further improve and innovate your capability.

29. Please advise on your current and long term strategy for your financial services Audit and Assurance function.

30. Please describe the type of relationships you have with Barclays’ regulators.

31. Please describe your approach for interpreting the expanded auditors report, and do you have early sight of the observations, comments and concerns related to you? If so, how have you communicated such feedback to your clients?

32. What is your approach to training and how do you embed audit quality throughout your practise?

33. Please describe your approach to compliance related matters i.e. KYC, AML and any other compliance checks and processes you implement.


34. Please advise on if and how your standard audit and assurance processes will need to be tailored to best suit Barclays (be sure to include any quality assurance activities).

35. Please provide compliance/quality assurance metrics on the core team you have proposed for Barclays.

36. Please describe the structure and process of your quality control reviews, and how these will be co-ordinated across the different entities.

37. What audit tools and data analytics will you implement?

38. Will your proposed audit approach for Barclays provide additional assurance beyond the statutory requirements and what will this involve in practise?

39. Please provide a detailed description of the top 3 issues you believe Barclays as a group is currently facing and how you plan to manage/mitigate/minimise them.

40. How will you work with Barclays to ensure a consistently, high quality service?

41. Please describe why you should be selected as Barclays’ auditor and what differentiates you from your competitors.

42. Will you apply any type of innovation to the proposed solution for Barclays in terms of process, approach, tools, etc.? If so, please describe.

43. Please describe the core team you propose to support the Barclays relationship including the Lead Partner:Other ratio. For each resource, please provide:

CV for each individual (no longer than 1 page) including qualifications and experience providing similar services to similar clients;

How long they are committed to stay on the account with Barclays;

% of time dedicated to servicing Barclays;

Qualifications and training completed;

Number of years of banking and financial services experience;

Participation in any industry/audit/accounting bodies;

44. Please provide a high level description of the proposed solution you are offering to Barclays. Please explain why you believe it is the best solution for Barclays and why Barclays should have confidence in the proposed solution being able to meet our business needs. As part of your response to this question, please be sure to include:

Assumptions you have made as part of your solution;

List of all locations from where the services will be provided from;

How the remote locations will interact with the core central team;

Any dependencies on Barclays or other 3rd

parties (where there are 3rd

party dependencies please indicate which 3

rd parties you propose to be included in

the solution and why);

Any support structures accompanying the solution;

Benefits and challenges with your proposed approach and any mitigating actions;

How scalable the solution is;

How you will embed quality into the audit engagement;

How you will report your findings;

Any other relevant details


45. Please provide a high level description of the approach you plan to implement to transition from the incumbent to your proposed solution. As part of your response, please include:

High level timelines and key milestones;

Dependencies on Barclays, the incumbent and any other 3rd

parties;

How your proposed approach will minimise disruption;

Key success factors related to your approach;

Key risks, issues and challenges;

Your experience with any recent transition of services (especially with the incumbent);

Any other relevant details

46. Please specify any Barclays functions, entities and/or jurisdictions for which you will not be able to provide a high quality audit and why.

47. Please describe how you propose to handle Barclays Africa (i.e. dual auditor requirement).

48. Please advise on how your audit will add value both to the company and shareholders.

49. Please describe your proposed relationship management strategy for Barclays and provide a proposed governance structure for the ongoing relationship.

50. Please describe your proposed engagement and communication strategy for interactions with Barclays (including Board, management and any other areas). Please specify frequency, high level agenda, proposed attendees, etc.

51. How will you manage your responsibilities to shareholders and the Audit Committee with the need to establish a good day to day working relationship with management?

52. How will you be flexible with your approach as Barclays changes over time?

53. How will you prioritise Barclays as a customer?

54. How do you plan to manage ad hoc queries and requests made by Barclays?

55. How do you propose to share knowledge and educate Barclays on emerging accounting practices, industry trends (risks and benefits) and market best practices?

56. Please describe how closely your culture and values align to those of Barclays and please provide any relevant information on your corporate and social responsibility policies/programmes.


1. Please provide your proposed approach for auditing Barclays. As part of your response, please include:

description of the key audit risks and how you would address them

description of the team and reporting structure for both the Group audit and key components (including service centres i.e. India);

how you propose to work with internal audit and other functions such as risk, compliance and other relevant functions;

description of your specific approach to the audit of Barclays IT systems;

2. Please describe your approach to transition, including:

detailed plan for the first 100 days;

timelines and key milestones;

dependencies on Barclays, the incumbent and any other 3rd

parties;

any IT related activities which must be completed;

any other relevant details

3. Please provide a detailed plan for independence and identify any issues that need to be resolved before you can achieve independence, including:

Financial Relationships that would need to be exited;

Ongoing engagements that would need to be exited early;

Local statutory or other regulations that would impede independence;

Any other issues that would need to be resolved

For each issue please detail your proposed resolution and associated timelines.

4. Please provide your assessment of the key risks and issues which you believe are facing each of Barclays’ business units today and the expected trend over the next 3 – 5 years? This should include any strategic challenges, market conditions, regulatory changes, competitive threats, etc.

5. Please describe your approach to communicating with the shareholders.

6. Please provide comments on Barclays 2014 financial statements, Pillar 3, etc.

7. Please provide a draft audit report.

8. Please advise of any amendments to your RFP Part 1 submission.


1. Barclays requires a commercial approach which provides transparency and cost predictability across the full term. Please provide a commercial proposal to accompany your proposed solution which includes:

How transparency will be provided during the relationship;

How fees will be controlled and Barclays will have cost certainty;

All related dependencies and assumptions (i.e. volume commitments, term, etc.);

Risks and benefits with adopting your proposed approach;

Costs which will remain fixed for the term;

Costs which will be variable for the term;

Factors which impact the costs i.e. volume, time, etc.;

Costs associated with any supporting infrastructure;

Proposed rate cards by role and region;

Discount mechanisms;

Process for agreeing costs during the term and any associated terms and conditions;

Process for agreeing costs for any potential renewal terms and associated terms and conditions; and

All other supporting information

2. Please provide a proposed fee for the 2017 audit broken down by key components.


Audit Tender_RFP_QuestionAnswerTemplate.xlsx


Audit Tender Meeting Minutes Template_v1.2.docx


AuditTender_AuditProfile_Template_v1.0_Feb2015.xlsx


AuditTender_CustomerProfileTemplate_v1.1_Feb2015.xlsx

barclays bank plc | 3€¦ · · 2017-07-30barclays bank plc | 3 . barclays bank plc ... between...

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