engleski

The role of internal audit in increasing quality of business operations of insurance companies

According to the Insurance Act ( Offi cial Gazette 30/15), insurance compa-nies in the Republic of Croatia are required to establish an internal audit func-tion, which includes evaluating the adequacy and eff ectiveness of the internal control system and other segments of the management system. For this reason, the subject of this paper is based on internal audit in insurance companies. On the other hand, the main objective of the paper is to highlight the signifi cance of performing internal audit within the aforementioned non-banking fi nancial institutions, investigating the level of impact of implementation of internal au-dit on the quality of overall business operations of insurance companies in the Republic of Croatia, by assessing the degree of contribution of internal audit to individual indicators of the quality of business operations of insurance compaies, namely: level of capital adequacy, quality of calculation of technical provi-sions, generation of profi t from underwriting results, quality and continuity of investment income, and amount of return on invested own funds. From the results of the empirical study conducted on a sample of sixteen insur-ance companies, which are licensed by HANFA to conduct insurance business and are members of the Croatian Insurance Bureau (CIB), it can be concluded that, although internal audit in insurance companies, with branch offi ces in the Republic of Croatia, is functionally and organisationally separated from other parts of the joint stock company, it is to a signifi cant extent marked by subordination to the management, which negatively aff ects the effi ciency of implementation of internal audit in insurance companies. Furthermore, it can be said that in insurance companies, which are licensed to carry out insurance activities in the Republic of Croatia, it is usual to perform audit of operations, but because management begins to perceive the usefulness of internal audit in the management process, the management audit, in contemporary notions, is gaining extraordinary importance. Finally, it can be seen that, in general, con-ducting internal audit activities signifi cantly contributes to individual indica-tors of quality of business operations of insurance companies, and accordingly increases the quality of overall business operations of insurance companies in the Republic of Croatia.

insurance companies, internal audit, quality of business operations, empirical research

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