The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) announced sanctions against BDO and Jones over the 2019 statutory audit of NMCN. The regulator described the breaches as “significant and serious,” pointing to numerous and pervasive failures across the audit work, particularly in the testing of long-term contracts and the assessment of going concern risks.
The audit profession has spent years talking about becoming more strategic. Deloitte’s latest outlook suggests that conversation is finally starting to turn into something operational.
European Securities and Markets Authority has identified governance and oversight shortcomings in parts of Europe’s investment management sector following a sweeping EU-wide review into the compliance and internal audit functions of fund managers.
The United Arab Emirates is tightening coordination between its financial regulators and audit overseers, launching a first-of-its-kind joint inspection initiative that authorities say is designed to strengthen confidence in the country’s capital markets and corporate reporting environment.
As organizations close out reporting cycles and certification bodies continue surveillance activity, a familiar pattern is surfacing inside companies across industries. Policies look polished. Dashboards appear reassuring. Certifications remain displayed proudly on websites and office walls. But under audit scrutiny, many of those systems begin to fracture.
Senior figures from across Canada's audit ecosystem recently gathered for a roundtable co-hosted by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, the Canadian Public Accountability Board, and the Canadian Securities Administrators. Around the table were representatives from audit firms, accounting professional bodies, standard setters, and regulatory authorities, all working through a shared concern on how to maintain confidence in financial reporting as the underlying risk environment becomes harder to read.
The Financial Reporting Council has finalized revisions to two of the UK’s most closely watched auditing standards, sharpening how auditors are expected to approach fraud risks and assess whether companies can continue operating.