Managing a diverse portfolio of dispersed assets, strategic investments, and large-scale real estate projects, Libya’s Savings and Real Estate Investment Bank (SRE) operates across multiple financial sectors, including mortgage financing, bond issuance, and property development. With its extensive involvement in these complex financial activities, the bank identified the need to strengthen its financial oversight and enhance the expertise within its financial control department. To address this, SRE engaged Qabas to deliver a targeted internal auditing programme aimed at upskilling C-level executives with advanced techniques to support more rigorous operational integrity and governance.
The Situation
SRE Investment Bank oversees an extensive and varied range of activities, making effective financial oversight a formidable challenge. The bank’s responsibility for both its own ventures and those managed for others creates additional layers of complexity in financial management. Given this diverse operational landscape, robust internal auditing is essential to ensure transparency, mitigate risks, and maintain compliance with stringent regulatory requirements.
The bank’s leadership recognised that the effectiveness of its financial controls relied heavily on the expertise of its senior auditing professionals. To address this, SRE sought a targeted training programme focused on equipping its C-level executives with the advanced auditing techniques necessary to manage their complex financial landscape and reinforce overall governance.
Our Approach
Qabas developed and delivered a specialised internal auditing programme designed to meet the unique challenges of SRE’s operational environment. The course focused on:
- Advanced Auditing Practices: Delivered in-depth training on auditing techniques tailored to complex financial institutions, covering areas such as compliance auditing, risk management, and operational control.
- Risk Mitigation Strategies: Introduced proactive methodologies for identifying and mitigating risks within diverse portfolios, with a particular focus on high-value real estate and investment projects.
- Real Estate and Asset Management Auditing: Focused on auditing practices specific to real estate and large-scale investments, addressing the intricacies of SRE’s diverse operations.
- Streamlining Financial Controls: Emphasised optimising financial supervision processes, enhancing resource allocation, and improving the bank’s ability to monitor its extensive range of activities effectively.
- Scenario-Based Training: Engaged participants in practical exercises and case studies that directly reflected the bank’s operational challenges, ensuring the immediate applicability of new skills.
Implementation
The intensive programme was delivered over several focused sessions, blending theoretical insights with practical applications. Qabas experts guided SRE’s senior executives through realistic scenarios and tailored exercises that directly addressed the financial oversight challenges they face. The training was designed to be immediately actionable, allowing participants to apply enhanced auditing practices and strengthened control mechanisms directly to their roles.
Results
Post-training, SRE’s financial control department is better positioned to navigate the complexities of its diverse operations. The enhanced auditing capabilities have led to more robust risk management, streamlined financial processes, and improved regulatory compliance. These advancements have reinforced the bank’s governance framework, ensuring that its wide-ranging activities are effectively supervised and aligned with industry standards.
This strategic initiative has strengthened SRE Investment Bank’s financial oversight, enabling it to better manage its expansive portfolio and maintain its commitment to excellence in a highly regulated environment.
