Banks: they’re a necessary evil. They pretend to look after our financial interests but really they’re just looking after their own. Some banks are worse than others. For example, in South Africa, banks charge people to deposit money, withdraw money, transfer money (even between accounts in the same name), and make payments, and that’s not counting monthly bank charges and other ‘admin fees’. By and large, the interest rates that banks all over the world charge on loans also borders on criminal. So, who is on the consumer’s side? Who monitors banks and ensures that they behave as ethically as possible?

Enter bank examiners.

Bank examiners are the watchmen of the banking world. They poke around behind the scenes to determine whether banks operate within the rules and regulations, whether their policies are fair and ethical, whether their procedures run smoothly and whether staff follow these procedures, protocols and keep proper records of all transactions. Bank examiners all check to see that staff are properly trained and qualified for their jobs.

Bank examiners can work for governmental departments, regulating bodies and banks themselves – to ensure that financial institutions don’t incur any penalties owing to dodgy practices.

Image via CrunchBase

If you aren’t already doing your accounting online, you are missing out on some fantastic functionality and interfaces that could dramatically simplify your business accounting processes.

There are many online account tools to use, the most popular being Sage, Quickbooks and Xero. Sage and Quickbooks are proven tools for successful online accounting, and although Xero is a relative newcomer in the world of online accounting, it is already making waves with its increased functionality and intuitive interface.