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.
Sapia will pay more than £19.6 million to clients of WealthTek after UK regulators found the firm failed to put adequate safeguards around client money, exposing customers to the risk of loss.
In this article, Norman Marks explores what the future holds for internal auditing as AI, automation, and rapidly evolving business processes begin to reshape the very foundations of risk and control. Drawing on a real-world anecdote, he challenges auditors to rethink not just their tools, but their purpose, urging the profession to move beyond incremental change and confront the deeper question of what meaningful assurance looks like in a world where the rules are being rewritten in real time.