Review of the elements supporting assurance

The building blocks of assurance that are in place and were available to the Executive Director in 2024 are outlined below:

• Audits: throughout 2024, all the remaining recommendations stemming from the Supervisory Reporting and Data Quality and Internal Control Framework and Risk Management audits have been closed. The report on Human Resources Management and Ethics has been validated and an action plan subsequently approved. The IAS concluded that, overall, the internal control system put in place by the EBA to manage its human resources and its ethics framework is adequately designed and effectively and efficiently implemented to support the achievement of its operational goals.
• Monitoring and reporting: this includes, for example, a thorough planning cycle with meetings with all units; regular reports to the Management Board; monthly, quarterly and ad hoc internal reporting; and regular ex post control exercises on selected samples of transactions.
• Certification of the Authority’s year-end accounts by the Accounting Officer: the Accounting Officer’s certification of the 2024 provisional accounts transmitted by 1 March 2025 provided reasonable assurance to the Executive Director that the accounts present a true and fair view of the Authority’s financial situation.
• Internal controls: the Internal Control Coordinator ensures the effectiveness of the Authority’s internal control systems, which was attested to by the Internal Audit Service. The current Internal Control Framework of the EBA is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of five objectives set out in Article 30(2) of the Financial Regulation: (1) effectiveness, efficiency and economy of operations; (2) reliability of reporting; (3) safeguarding of assets and information; (4) prevention, detection, correction and follow-up of fraud and irregularities; and (5) adequate management of risks relating to the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. The revised framework supplements the Financial Regulation and other applicable rules and regulations with a view to aligning EBA standards to the Commission standards, which are based on the highest international standards set by the Committee of Sponsoring Organisations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) framework.
• The discharge granted by the European Parliament and the related report further supports management assurance, in that the observations issued by the Discharge Authority in the last reports did not raise any substantial issues. Where concerns were noted, these had already been resolved to the extent that they were generally raised in the context of evaluations of the Court or IAS, and could thus be addressed as part of the follow-up actions taken in response to these.
• There were no significant weaknesses reported from these building blocks of assurance that are considered to be of such a significance that they would have an impact on the Executive Director’s Declaration of Assurance.

Reservations

Materiality criteria used regarding reservations:

The concept of materiality provides the Authorising Officer with a basis for determining if an identified weakness should be subject to a formal reservation in the declaration of assurance.

Qualitative criteria:

- Weakness leading to critical operational damage.

- Weakness leading to critical reputational damage.

- Critical observations by auditors or OLAF.

Quantitative criteria:

In accordance with the Commission’s guidelines on the preparation of annual activity reports, the ECA uses a 2% materiality threshold. The EBA has therefore set the quantitative criterion for materiality at 2% of its total budget

Overall conclusions on assurance

Taking into account the review of the elements supporting assurance, the Executive Director, in their role as Authorising Officer, is of the opinion that the management and control systems at the EBA are functioning as intended. Risks are appropriately monitored and mitigated, and necessary improvements are being implemented.

Based on the information presented in the report, and in light of the opinions expressed by the ECA regarding the reliability of the accounts, as well as the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying those accounts, the EBA concludes that the existing systems provide reasonable assurance that the resources under the Executive Director’s responsibility have been used for their intended purposes and in accordance with the principles of sound financial management.