Audit committees have a weighty workload: an expanding mandate, CFO succession, and risk oversight are cited as top challenges in 2014.

• Author: Whalen, Dennis T.
• Position: ON THE GOVERNANCE AGENDA

AUDIT COMMITTEES around the world say it is becoming "increasingly difficult," given the committee's workload and expertise, to oversee major risks in addition to financial reporting. Respondents to KPMG's. 2014 Global Audit Committee Survey--some 1,500 audit committee members in 34 countries--also cited CFO succession and risk oversight as top challenges as their companies navigate increasingly complex regulatory and operating environments.

Clearly, audit committee agendas are not getting any lighter. Overseeing financial reporting and audit, and ensuring those activities have the right resources and talent, is a job in itself. Our survey findings suggest that it's a good time to step back and assess whether the audit committee's risk oversight responsibilities are appropriate and, more broadly, whether the board's agenda allows sufficient time for quality discussion of what matters most to the business.

Audit committees have a unique perspective on the risks facing the business, and their vantage point sheds important light for the full board as well as for management and auditors. I encourage you to read the full survey (available at kpmg. com/acisurvey), but here's a snapshot:

* While many audit committees have primary responsibility for a number of critical risks facing the company (beyond financial reporting risk)--legal/ regulatory compliance, antibribery/cor-ruption, financial, and/or IT and cyber security risks--43% said it is becoming "increasingly difficult" to oversee those risks. About one in four said their board has recently reallocated or rebalanced risk responsibilities, created a new committee to address specific risks, or may consider doing so in the near future. Audit committees in the U.S. report having greater responsibility for IT/cyber security, financial, and anti bri bery/corruption risk than global averages.

* Talent in the finance organization was also cited as concern. Globally, only 38% of survey respondents said their company has a formal succession plan in place for the CFO; and only about 40% said their company has clear performance objectives to evaluate the CFO's performance.

* While audit committees are satisfied with much of the information they receive about key risks facing the company, nearly one in three said information about cyber security, emerging technologies, and the company's growth and...