Internal Audit: Moving at the Speed of Innovation

Currently an international consultant in central banking and financial sector issues, Christian Durand was until 2018 deputy comptroller general of Banque de France, with direct reporting to the governor. His domain of responsibility included the audit function, operational risks and on-site inspections conducted by French examiners at the request of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) or the French banking supervision authority.  Before that, he was deputy director general for economics and international affairs at the Banque de France, and in this context was a member of Banque de France Monetary and Financial Stability Policy Committees and regularly attended CGFS meetings at the BIS. During his career, Mr. Durand has held senior positions with the International Monetary Fund’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department, the French Banking Supervisory Authority and the French Securities and Futures Commission and led negotiations ending with the signing of MOUs with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). He has also worked extensively with financial institutions in France and other organizations, including the New York Federal Reserve Bank, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), FIRST initiative and the AFRITAC project. Through his different assignments he has developed a professional experience in central banking, international economics, financial supervision and financial sector development and stability issues. He has conducted or supervised the implementation of several technical assistance projects for the EU, the IMF or the Banque de France and led, for the IMF FSAP program, financial stability assessment missions in a wide range of countries starting with Cameroon in 1999 and ending with the United States in 2010. His academic education is in economics (thesis on “the concept of money in the controversies on capital, interest and fluctuations in the early thirties”), finance and law. 

Klaus Gressenbauer joined the European Monetary Institute in December 1997 and the European Central Bank (ECB) at its inception in 1998. He held a number of management positions in international banking, primarily in the area of controlling and general management. Upon joining the ECB Mr Gressenbauer first served as Director Planning & Organisation and was later on appointed Director Internal Audit. In his ECB capacity and prior to becoming Director Internal Audit, he inter alia also served as Chairman of the European System of Central Banks' (ESCD) Benchmarking Working Group, Chairman of the ESCB Organisational Analysis Working Group, member of the ECB Budget Committee, member of the ECB Management Committee, member of the ECB Project Steering Committee, member of the ECB Assets and Liabilities Committee and is now Chairman of the ESCB's Internal Auditors Committee. Mr Gressenbauer studied communication theories and philosophy and holds a PhD in political sciences from the University of Vienna. He also holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the International Management Institute in Geneva.