Strong foundations: award-winning internal audit at Together Financial Services 

The Group Internal Audit team at Together Financial Services – the UK’s largest specialist mortgage and secured-loan lender – had got itself a “bit stuck”, says its Chief Audit Officer of the period before he joined the company in early 2017. His work, and that of his team, got the function out of a rut, increased its impact, and significantly improved relationships with stakeholders. In doing so, in 2025, they won the Chartered IIA’s Audit & Risk Award for “Outstanding Team – Financial Services Sector”.

When Chris Ramsdale joined Together in 2017 as Chief Audit Officer, his team of three full-time-equivalent senior auditors were feeling isolated and uncertain of their standing and role. The function was under-resourced and misunderstood, and a couple of historic audit reports had led to significant relationship breakdowns with key stakeholders. Together is based on one site in Cheadle, so personal relationships are critical to its success. 

Ramsdale says. “I quickly realised how important building trusted relationships was within our business internally, as well as with external partners. With these foundations in place, having our colleagues all on one site allows us to resolve challenges quickly. However, it was clear to me early on that bad news travels equally fast. Historic negative experiences had meant that the function’s reputation, fairly or unfairly, had come under scrutiny.”

The problem was not the quality of internal audit work – the team had a strong underlying internal audit methodology and sound reporting and tracking mechanisms. But it was failing to get through its annual audit plan and to have an impact on and influence stakeholders.

“It needed resources, motivation, direction, and frankly, friends” Ramsdale explains. “I was fortunate to be given the time and support from both the Board and Executive Management to pivot the team.”

By 2024, the team had expanded to 12 full-time-equivalent auditors, with a variety of experiences and qualifications, including four internal auditors studying for their CIA certifications. It had significantly increased the number of audits completed, but more importantly, had influenced its stakeholders to implement 1,535 actions originating from audit work since 2020.

Relationships with a range of colleagues across the business had improved, with the team gaining an average feedback score from stakeholders of 96% per audit in the past two years. “The function’s profile and reputation, among colleagues, Executive Management, and Board, has never been higher,” Ramsdale says.

Morale within the team also rose with an engagement survey score of 8.7 against a benchmark of 8. Internal Quality review file scores achieved 98%, and the team gained an excellent External Quality Assessment (EQA) result as well as a positive self-assessment of conformity against the Global Standards.

Culture and relationships

Ramsdale’s first task was to improve poor relationships between the function and the business. “Before we could start a new audit plan, I needed to sit in meetings with the team and oversee relationships to identify where our communications and interactions could be better,” he says.

“We had to build bridges and turn around how our stakeholders perceived us so we could get their buy-in to what we were trying to do,” he explains. “It is important to get a few key people on your side initially in day-to-day interactions, including Audit Committee members. You can develop understanding and acceptance from there.”

One key objective was to increase accountability and ownership over internal audit recommendations. They put the management team in control by helping them to devise their own action plans, based on internal audit recommendations, and to set realistic dates for achieving those. Internal audit then monitored their progress.

Regular progress meetings produced positive outcomes for the business and internal audit. “The process opened my eyes to how committed people in the business are. It wasn’t that they didn’t care about internal audit findings and actions – they were so keen to improve that they often set over-ambitious action dates,” Ramsdale says.

“Working with our colleagues to set clear actions with realistic target dates helped both parties. Over time, past due actions reduced to negligible numbers.”

A large part of his job involved demonstrating how internal audits should be undertaken, role modelling the relationship aspects, and making expectations clear to auditors and stakeholders. It wasn’t enough to increase the quantity of audits completed; the quality had to be maintained as well.

“Once we started issuing satisfaction surveys to stakeholders, we got great feedback, which encouraged the team and gave the function the confidence it needed,” Ramsdale says. “The expectations of colleagues started to rise as well – some audits with fewer findings attracted less positive feedback, simply because managers wanted more to improve.”

This didn’t happen overnight. “Relationships and trust take time to build, and business leaders who are passionate and experienced can be, understandably, protective of their environments until they see the value of your work,” he says.

“It was important to manage communications up through the Executive and Board, and to build relationships with colleagues at all levels, influencing their expectations,” he adds. “Developing one-to-one relationships achieved surprisingly quick successes, which was hugely rewarding.”

Building on trust

The next step was to inform the Audit Committees that internal audit was ready for its first External Quality Assessment (EQA). The positive outcome of this exercise reaffirmed the changes that the function had implemented. It was great for reputation and morale, but also provided development steps.

“The EQA process was insightful and gave us an opportunity to progress and develop new areas,” Ramsdale says.

The Board and Executive had already expressed a desire for internal audit to provide more consultancy and advisory work. The EQA gave them the confidence to embark on this and to create a strategy to develop their use of data analytics.

A further indication of progress came when they had to present a “challenging” audit report that highlighted important issues requiring urgent action. “It was a testament to our relationships that this was gratefully received and Management were immediately keen to put recommended changes in place,” Ramsdale says. “This was a wholly rewarding and positive experience.”

Growing the team

Another critical issue was people development. The team had been under-resourced and could not take on further work without more people.

“We had a flat and rigid hierarchy in the function, so we adapted this into more of a pyramid,” Ramsdale says.  “Being outside the city centre meant attracting internal auditors with financial services experience was sometimes challenging. When team members moved into other areas of the business, it was great for their development and for the company, but we struggled to replace them”.

A conversation with the shareholder and founder of the business was a turning point. Together has a history of helping young people build careers through its graduate and apprenticeship schemes. With the shareholder’s advice and support, and the approval of the Audit Committee Chairs, I worked with our Talent Academy to find candidates to train from scratch,” Ramsdale says.

Two new team members have since gained their CIA certification, and  two more are in the last stages. “Our recruitment has increased diversity in thoughts and ideas at a time when we are undergoing a transformation programme in the business,” Ramsdale says. “It is great to see a pipeline of auditors learning their trade and developing their careers.”

The future

A major part of this transformation includes introducing a new platform covering the entire customer lifecycle. The internal audit function is providing assurance and advice to the Board, which requires an agile approach.

“We’re challenging team members, asking them to think faster and consider what further value their work can add. This is demanding in a fast-paced transformation programme,” Ramsdale explains. “However, working from a base of trust and strong stakeholder relationships makes it easier.”

The technological improvements in the transformation programme will enable the internal audit function to expand its use of data analytics. “This is our chance to set ourselves up for future success and for everyone in the team to experiment,” Ramsdale says. “It’s an opportunity to take our work to new levels with better structured data.”

The awards

Putting together the nomination for the Chartered IIA Awards was an important learning experience for Ramsdale, who found it challenging and rewarding.

“It’s important that smaller teams don’t fear entering the awards. You may not win, but you will still benefit,” he says. “We shared our application with key stakeholders. Reminding them what you’ve achieved and gaining their endorsements boosts recognition internally and is massively important for the team.”

However, it’s vital to get your timing right, he adds. “You need to demonstrate tangible outcomes, but not leave it till your work is in the distant past.”

Ramsdale consulted senior managers in the internal audit function about what to include in the application. “We were surprised how much we had achieved, and this fired us up,” he says.

He discussed the nomination with the Audit Committee chairs and the CEOs (two of each), as well as the CFO and CRO, and requested detailed written endorsements.

“That reaffirmed what we had achieved and what our stakeholders thought of us,” he says. “It was great for morale and confidence because it reinforced our successes and reminded us of our journey.”

He shared the draft nomination with the team so they could add input, and liaised with internal stakeholders, including communications and marketing teams.

“Getting on the shortlist was a huge achievement. We didn’t expect it,” he says. “Just telling the team and our colleagues that we were shortlisted was worthy of a celebration. Blowing your own trumpet doesn’t come naturally to internal auditors, but it was a great feeling”.

The whole team attended the awards event – it was an opportunity to reward individuals and a chance to network with peers. “It was inspirational to see the impact that internal audit is making in every sector,” Ramsdale says.

Once they knew they had won, Ramsdale messaged key stakeholders. “The responses from colleagues, including from our Executive Management and Board, made us really proud, and we were proud to represent the business,” he says.  Their success was shared on the company intranet and other company social media channels, as well as on personal social media feeds.

“You need confidence and support to enter,” he says. “In our sector, award ceremonies, rightly, tend to focus on sales and underwriting functions. For a supporting function to win was huge. It was great to feel that recognition from colleagues. When we returned to the North West, we did a mini-tour of the trophy around the office.”

The award was referenced in the Company’s Annual Report to external stakeholders, “Our Chief Treasury Officer was enthusiastic because he feels it has weight when he talks to investors about corporate governance and the three lines of defence. The CEO of our regulated division also shared the news with the FCA.”

“Nothing stands still, so it is important to reflect on your successes”, Ramsdale adds. “The awards provided this opportunity. I couldn’t be prouder of the team’s success and of our stakeholders for the support they have given us over the years.”

The Chartered IIA Audit & Risk Awards Event 2026 takes place on 11 June. Tickets are available now.