A classic example of “if you can’t beat them, get paid for it.” Data is one of the biggest challenges for executives in the evolving ESG landscape, according to a March survey from Deloitte. The majority (57%) of finance, accounting, sustainability and legal executives told the firm that data availability and data quality, i.e., accuracy…
Category: accounting
Beyond Time For ‘Action Leadership’: Professional Advisers Need To Take A Stand On Ukraine — Dina Medland
With Russian businesses such as Gazprom, Rosneft, VTB Bank, Sberbank and more now under western sanctions, advisory firms may find it easier to find their way off the fence. Some have hidden in language and spoken of not stopping Russian-related work that “goes against our values,” others have hastily pledged they will review mandates. But…
UK To Overhaul Audit, Address “Real Life Consequences” Of Failures In Audit And Corporate Governance — Dina Medland
The U.K. government is joining up the dots on the need for trust to build a strong commercial ecosystem for business. It intends to broaden the remit of audit, introduce new reporting obligations on businesses, and break the dominance of the Big Four accounting firms by requiring the use of smaller “challenger” firms by large…
Happy SFDR reporting day! The EU Action Plan isn’t perfect, but it’s the best we’ve got, and we must back it vigorously
Responsible Investor’s Hugh Wheelan writes: [T]he tipping points for the huge ESG shift we are witnessing are the regulatory drivers of The EU Green Deal and Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth. They are two blockbuster regional policy drivers that will have global ‘translation effects’ for all companies and investors; public or private, amplified rapidly…
Samantha Ross: The Role of Accounting and Auditing in Addressing Climate Change
U.S. federal securities laws are founded on the idea that transparency promotes well-functioning capital markets. This is particularly true when it comes to the urgent goal of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions to prevent the devastating impacts of climate change. For companies, those impacts include both physical risks, including the risk that facilities will be…
Joe Biden must take a global lead on climate risk disclosure | Financial Times
This is especially powerful because one of the authors is Robert Herz, former Chairman of FASB. Ideally, Mr Biden would be able to win bipartisan support for his policies. But, even with a sharply divided US Congress, the Biden administration can make significant progress on issues such as climate risk by using executive orders and…
Accountants work to counter climate change | Accounting Today
Accounting groups are reacting to the latest reports about the accelerated pace of climate change as global warming reaches record levels. Against the backdrop of the United Nations’ 25th annual Conference of the Parties, or COP25, in Madrid, the International Federation of Accountants published a Point of View on climate action to highlight the role…
Francine McKenna: A tale of two SEC enforcement actions — Luckin Coffee and GE
Francine McKenna’s columns on The Dig are always thoughtful and informative. We particularly appreciate her comments on two last-minute settlements by the Trump/Clayton SEC. A week after it announced a $200 million settlement with GE for “disclosure failures,” the Securities and Exchange Commission settled with China’s Luckin Coffee for $180 million. “The Securities and Exchange…
German cabinet approves tougher oversight after Wirecard scandal | Reuters
The German cabinet passed a package of reforms to financial and accounting rules on Wednesday aimed at avoiding another Wirecard scandal amid criticism from opposition lawmakers who say the government’s measures do not go far enough. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the co-governing Social Democrats (SPD) agreed to extend the powers of the BaFin watchdog…
It’s Not What You Look at that Matters: It’s What You See, Revealing ESG in Critical Audit Matters
PCAOB Board member J. Robert Brown, Jr. spoke to ICGN about audit disclosures and ESG. An excerpt (footnotes omitted): I’m guessing that when you think about Environmental, Social and Governance or ESG disclosure, audit regulators are not usually top of mind. Today, though, I want to share some thoughts about why they should be. The…
ValueEdge Advisors 