Let’s recap the chief audit executive’s evolution in the past 15 years.

In the 1990s, the CAE and internal audit reworked its internal image from a traffic cop to an internal consultant, by identifying process-improvement opportunities nestled throughout the organization while the function “opened the organizational hood” during its annual audit. The passage of Sarbanes-Oxley foisted many, if not most, internal auditors into a compliance role – many functions took ownership of internal controls work, which it has only handed off to business process owners in the past several years.

So what’s next on this interesting evolutionary road map for CAEs? “Game Changer,” according to a report from Korn/Ferry International and The Institute of Internal Auditor’s (IIA’s) Audit Executive Center.

“License to Lead,” a study based on insight from chief audit executives (CAEs) and audit committee members, describes high-performing CAEs as game-changers. The study also indicates that today’s CAEs need broader experience, more business acumen, and other key leadership skills to be effective in this dynamic economic environment.

The report is available here and here (some poking around required). ###

Each year, consulting firm Phoenix-Hecht surveys corporate users of bank treasury services. For 2010, the survey included nearly 2,000 responses from representatives of companies with sales of $40 million-plus.

Among the major findings:

1. Credit was tighter. No surprise there, but the numbers were significant. More than one-fourth of large companies, defined as those with sales of $500 million or more, experienced either a reduction or withdrawal of credit. That’s more than double the 12 percent responding affirmatively a year earlier. When it came to middle-market companies, 18 percent saw access to credit shrink; that was more than three times the year-earlier number. more