What is the primary purpose of a bank confirmation?

A bank confirmation letter’s purpose is to assure a third party, generally a seller, that the borrower has access to sufficient financial resources to complete a transaction, such as the purchase of goods.

What is the purpose of a bank confirmation and why bank confirmations are an important piece of audit evidence?

A bank confirmation is a process that an auditor uses to ensure that the amounts of money in a person’s or company’s bank account match the numbers in its financial statements. It is a type of audit procedure, and it is one of the most significant steps in any financial audit.

What additional information is included with a standard bank confirmation?

The standard bank confirmation provides an overview of all of an organisation’s banking affairs. This includes any current accounts, savings accounts and/or investment accounts that the organisation holds with ING Bank N.V., but also any credit facilities or mandates held by representatives and authorised persons.

What is the purpose of audit confirmation?

Confirmation is undertaken to obtain evidence from third parties about financial statement assertions made by management. See paragraph 8 of Auditing Standard No. 15, Audit Evidence, which discusses the reliability of audit evidence.

Why are bank confirmations important in auditing?

Thus, auditors should always obtain the bank confirmations from banks or financial institutions to ensure adequate and sufficient presentation of bank balance, bank loan, borrowing and facilities, security & term & conditions before giving an opinion on financial statement.

What does bank confirmation mean?

Key Takeaways



A bank confirmation letter (BCL), also known as a comfort letter, is a letter verifying a borrower has access to a loan or line of credit. The letter isn’t a guarantee of payment but shows that a borrower has the financial resources available to complete a transaction.

Is bank confirmation required?

In fact, the use of bank confirmations has never been a required procedure under any auditing standard.

What assertions do bank confirmations cover?

For account balances and related disclosures, the assertions tested are existence, rights and obligations, completeness, accuracy, valuation and allocation, classification, and presentation.

What is a bank account confirmation letter?

What is a Bank Confirmation Letter? A bank confirmation letter (BCL) refers to a letter from either a bank or any other financial institution asserting the existence of a line of credit or a loan which has been extended to a borrower.

How do I get a standard Bank confirmation letter?

Log onto the mobile banking app, Tap on the tier which shows your balance and account details, Under “Your Documents”, tap on “view”, Under “Bank Letters”, you’ll find the option to either download or send your bank account confirmation letter via email.

What is the purpose of positive confirmation?

Positive confirmation is an auditing inquiry that requires the customer to respond, confirming the accuracy of an item. Positive confirmation requires proof of accuracy by affirming that the original information was correct or by providing the correct information if incorrect.

What are the types of confirmation?

The three types of confirmation forms are positive confirmation, blank confirmation forms, and negative confirmation.

What is confirmation of balance?

Balance confirmation. Here you notify the business partner of the individual amounts for which you require confirmation. You ask for a reply, irrespective of whether the amounts correspond or not. Balance notification. Here, as above, you notify the business partner of the individual amounts to be confirmed.

Who writes for a bank confirmation letter?

For the most part, the customer requests this confirmation from the bank soon after a financial year. The customer requires the bank to confirm the bank account balance at the year-end, i.e., 31st March and other details. Here is a format of a bank confirmation letter to the bank from the customer.

What is the purpose of sending out positive confirmations?

Positive confirmation requires proof of accuracy by affirming that the original information was correct or by providing the correct information if incorrect. Positive confirmations are used to verify the amounts of liabilities, investments, bank accounts, accounts receivables, and payables.

What assertions do bank confirmations cover?

For account balances and related disclosures, the assertions tested are existence, rights and obligations, completeness, accuracy, valuation and allocation, classification, and presentation.

Why is it important for auditors to understand revenue recognition rules?

With this knowledge, the auditor can identify key terms of standardized contracts and evaluate the effects of nonstandard terms. Such information helps the auditor determine the procedures necessary to test whether revenue was properly reported.

What are type of confirmations?

There are two types of confirmations: A positive confirmation requests that the recipient complete a form confirming account balances (for example, how much a customer owes the company). A negative confirmation requests that the recipient respond only if the balance is inaccurate.

What is confirmation of balance?

Balance confirmation. Here you notify the business partner of the individual amounts for which you require confirmation. You ask for a reply, irrespective of whether the amounts correspond or not. Balance notification. Here, as above, you notify the business partner of the individual amounts to be confirmed.

What is a negative confirmation?

What Is a Negative Confirmation? Negative confirmation is a letter or document requesting that the recipient should only respond to the sender if there were an issue with the contents of the message or the recipient wanted to opt-out of the event that the letter had addressed.