Welcome to this week’s Technical Roundup.
In developments this week, the European Union has published a Commission Regulation endorsing the amendments to IFRS 17 Insurance contracts: Initial Application of IFRS 17 and IFRS 9 – Comparative Information. The amendments are effective on initial application of IFRS 17 and the UK Endorsement Board has published the findings of its first Annual Board Effectiveness Review.
Read more on these and other developments that may be of interest to members below.
Financial Reporting
EFRAG, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, has released its Annual Review for 2021 which highlights the main achievements of the organisation in the past year.
The European Union has published a Commission Regulation endorsing the amendments to IFRS 17 Insurance contracts: Initial Application of IFRS 17 and IFRS 9 – Comparative Information. The amendments are effective on initial application of IFRS 17. As a result, the EFRAG Endorsement Status report has been updated.
Accountancy Europe has published an article entitled “Accountants and Ethics: Promoting Trust in the Public Sector”.
The UK Endorsement Board has published the findings of its first Annual Board Effectiveness Review.
The FRC has published its thematic review of earnings per share. This highlights the requirements of local and international standards in relation to reporting EPS, as well as some common errors.
Auditing and Assurance
A financial statement compilation is a service to assist the management of a business in presenting its financial statements. Members undertaking compilation engagements should refer to International Standard on Related Services 4410 (Revised) Compilation Engagements (ISRS4410) for guidance on the completion of such engagements.
We recently issued a technical alert, TA 04 2022 Chartered Accountants’ Reports on The Compilation of Financial Information to highlight a number of matters that may be helpful to an accountant in Ireland/UK undertaking such an engagement.
Insolvency
The Revenue Commissioners has recently issued a document entitled Guidance for Procedures for Small Company Administrative Rescue Process. This document provides an overview of the Small Company Administrative Rescue Process (SCARP) and Revenue's procedures including the role of the Insolvency Unit and information required by Revenue. It also includes templates for several documents including a Statement of Affairs, notices of appointment and proxy forms.
Anti-Money Laundering and Sanctions
A representative of the Financial Conduct Authority spoke recently at a financial crime summit in London. Some of the key themes included that the FCA expects financial crime to become even more prolific during the cost-of-living crisis, that their work is ongoing on sanctions, that they use data and intelligence to identify firms with potential weaknesses in controls, and then data tools to test firms sanction screening systems effectiveness. They also warn firms which use vendor solutions for sanction screening processes, to ensure that the solution is tailored and suitable for their customer and business profile.
Readers may be interested in the webpage with information and links to a recent UK Parliament debate on the UK Government’s regulatory approach to crypto-assets and currencies. You can also download the full report which deals with matters including what are cryptoassets and UK regulation of cryptoassets.
The Central Bank of Ireland recently updated its ‘financial sanctions updates’ webpage to include two recent EU legislative developments published on 9 September which concern restrictive measures directed against certain persons, entities and bodies in view of the situation in Ukraine.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and INTERPOL recently launched a joint initiative to deprive criminals of their dirty money holding its first ever FATF-INTERPOL Roundtable Engagement (FIRE) event. It brought together law enforcement agencies, financial intelligence units, asset recovery offices, prosecutors, policy makers, international organizations and private sector industry leaders and you can read more details about it here.
For further technical information and updates please visit the Technical Hub on the Institute website.