Roger Marshall, a non-executive director of fund manager Old Mutual who chaired the IIA committee that devised the code, said: "Our aim is to encourage internal auditors to obtain a consistently wide view across the range of risks within their organisations and exert greater influence in ensuring that those risks are managed."

Andrew Bailey, executive director of the Bank of England, said: "The expectations of internal audit functions within financial services firms have hitherto been set too low."