IBA announces members of Finance and Audit Committees
As part of its ongoing reform process, the IBA Congress resolved in December 2021 to review the IBA Constitution and to provide new corporate governance committees, including the Finance and Audit Committees.
All candidates for the IBA corporate governance committees had to successfully pass comprehensive background checks conducted by the independent Interim Nomination Unit and a vetting company, to ensure they fulfilled the highest standards of integrity.
The Audit Committee is responsible for reviewing and monitoring IBA’s financial statements and accounting records, whilst the main focus of the Finance Committee is to oversee financial management and to advise the IBA Board of Directors on financial matters and asset management. The Finance Committee is also tasked with preparing the financial statements and the budget and submitting them to the Board for approval.
IBA Secretary General Istvan Kovacs commented: “IBA’s financial integrity and stability is one of our main priorities. Therefore, we have created a rigorous selection process to appoint the new members for the Audit and Finance Committees. The chosen independent members have a wealth of experience in the field of finance, and we will rely on them to help guide IBA to a new level of financial integrity.”
The newly appointed Audit Committee consists of three independent experts: Mr. Didier Wicht, Switzerland, owner of a company specializing in audit and technical accounting; Ms. Stacha Balmat, Switzerland, a finance specialist with 15 years of experience as a Senior Manager at PwC; Mr. Umar Akhtar, United Kingdom, who is chair of the audit and risk committee of the British American Football Association (BAFA) and has a breadth of finance and program management experience.
The Finance Committee consists of two independent members and a representative of the IBA Board of Directors – Mr. Felipe Martinez from Spain who was a member of the previous Audit Committee. The other members are Dr. Judit Tóth, Hungary, – Chairwoman at the Institute for Training and Consulting in Banking, Budapest, and Mr. Patrick Bosshard, Switzerland, who is a lawyer and a Founding Partner at the consulting company Corpa Switzerland AG.
