Boards, audit committees and senior management now want internalaudit to take on a bigger and more strategic role in helpingcompanies manage an increasing array of business risks, accordingto PwC's 2012 State of the Internal Audit Profession study. Thesurvey polled 1,530 executives from 16 industries in 64countries.

“The survey shows the trend has changed from just a few yearsago, when internal audit was limited to the finance and compliancefunction,” says Jason Pett, internal audit services leader for PwC.“At the end of the day, the work of internal audit is with keyrisks to the business. Internal audit needs to be aligned with thebusiness to make sure it is allocating time and effort to thehigh-risk areas.”

Stakeholders and chief audit executives (CAEs) say theirbusinesses now face more risks than ever before and identified 15risk areas. They want internal audit to bring its objective pointof view to focus on evaluating processes and controls in theseother areas, Pett says. The top areas where stakeholders are askingfor increased internal audit focus are data privacy and security,and regulations and government policies, according to the survey.