Welcome to this week’s Technical Roundup.
In developments this week, IAASA has published a Standards Newsletter, providing the latest updates and information about its auditing and assurance standards projects; Accountancy Europe (AE) has commended the European Commission (EC) for its initiative and for adopting a holistic approach to corporate reporting. The profession is open-minded to change and ready to contribute to the EC’s efforts to enhance the corporate reporting ecosystem, AE have proposed several solutions in their recently issued consultation response.
Read more on these and other developments that may be of interest to members below.
Financial Reporting
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) have issued two short webcasts in order to introduce the Exposure Draft Supplier Finance Arrangements.
A summary report has been released of the meeting of the IFRS Advisory Council held by remote participation on 11 January 2022.
The FRC has outlined and made public its preliminary thoughts to the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) on the prototypes published by the Technical Readiness Working Group to support the development of International Sustainability Standards.
A recording of the UK Endorsement Board’s (UKEB) January 2022 meeting is now available.
The UKEB has published its final comment letter and feedback statement on the IASB’s Request for Information: Post-implementation Review of IFRS 9 Classification and Measurement and is also inviting comments by 7th March on its draft comment letter on the IASB’s Exposure Draft Non-Current Liabilities with Covenants.
IAASA has published a compendium of financial reporting decisions relating to accounting treatments applied in individual financial statements. The publication covers decisions across several International Accounting Standards.
Auditing
IAASA has published a Standards Newsletter, providing the latest updates and information about its auditing and assurance standards projects.
We have added a number of questions and answers on Audit Exemption to the Institute’s Technical Hub.
Insolvency
Revenue has published guidance notes on its website on SCARP. The guidance includes an overview and who can participate and the form to be completed and sent to the Collector General insolvency unit to form a basis of discussion between revenue and a process adviser. Also, click here for Revenue Guidelines for Process Advisors.
Fraud/Anti money laundering/Economic Crime
Regulations have been published recently in Ireland to establish a central database of information on safe-deposit boxes and payment accounts. They are the European Union (Anti-Money Laundering: Central Mechanism For Information On Safe-Deposit Boxes And Bank And Payment Accounts) Regulations 2022 .These regulations authorise the Central Bank of Ireland to establish and maintain a central register of information on safe-deposit boxes and bank and payment accounts, as required under the fourth and fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directives. The Central Bank is currently finalising technical requirements for the central database.
FATF recently issued its “Follow up Report -Ireland 2022” on Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures in Ireland. Since its 2017 FATF assessment and 2019 follow up, Ireland has taken a number of actions to strengthen its framework. To reflect its progress, the FATF has now re-rated Ireland on DNFBPs (Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions): Customer due diligence, from partially compliant, to largely compliant. Also, as Ireland has met many of the new requirements introduced for Virtual Asset Service Providers with only minor deficiencies remaining it has retained its rating as remaining largely compliant in this area. You can read the full report here.
The House of Commons library in the UK recently published a research briefing entitled “Economic crime in the UK: A multi-billion pound problem”. It deals with the scale of the problem of economic crime, government action, and current issues including Brexit.
Other Areas of Interest
Paschal Donohoe spoke recently at the European Parliament's ECON Committee, reporting on Eurogroup's activities and policy priorities. He said while the outlook for the euro area economy remains favourable, inflation is of concern. He also spoke about the euro area policy response, economic governance, the digital euro and completing the banking union.
The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform‘s recent press release gave details of the publication of the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2022.The legislation will enhance and strengthen protections for whistle blowers in Ireland. The Bill when enacted will transpose the EU Whistleblowing Directive and will extend the scope of current legislation, the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, for example by providing for the first time protections for volunteers, shareholders, board members and people who come into possession of information as job applicants. The legislation will also establish a new Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner in the Office of the Ombudsman to support the operation of the new legislation. Further information on this important topic will be provided in future news and readers are also directed to the Institute’s own recent material in the form of a Governance Webcast where Gráinne Madden discusses with Níall Fitzgerald key developments in whistleblowing and speaking-up requirements in Ireland and the UK.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its latest edition of its Spotlight on Markets Newsletter covering December 2021 and January 2022.
The Charities Bill 2021 finished its progress through the NI Assembly on 8 February 2022 and will now go forward for Royal assent, the final stage in the legislative process.
Accountancy Europe has commended the European Commission (EC) for its initiative and for adopting a holistic approach to the 3 pillars of corporate reporting: corporate governance & reporting, statutory audit, and their supervision. The profession is open-minded to change and ready to contribute to the EC’s efforts to enhance the corporate reporting ecosystem. They have proposed several solutions in their consultation response.
The Central Bank recently issued its Securities Markets Risk Outlook Report. It details key conduct risks to securities markets and sets out actions firms should take to identify, mitigate and manage those risks. It expects firms to address key areas that the Central Bank identifies such as misconduct risks and conflicts of interest. Other key areas also identified are sustainable finance, governance and cyber security. You can read more information also in the press release where the Central Bank details a number of work items relating to the risk outlook including the undertaking of a number of full conduct risk assessments on firms.
In other Central Bank news this week you can read the Governor’s first blog of 2022 here where he talks about inflation in the euro area and Ireland. He stated that the economic outlook is positive, but inflation is currently high with the main driver being energy prices. He points to the importance of remaining data-driven in the assessment of the evolving inflation outlook but says if current trends in overall inflation persist the case for monetary policy action becomes stronger.
The Department of Finance recently launched an interesting document entitled “IRELAND FOR FINANCE The strategy for the development of Ireland’s international financial services sector to 2025”.You will find it by following the link and see details of the press release here. It is the fourth action plan under the Ireland for Finance strategy. This is a whole-of-government commitment in partnership with the private sector to further develop the international financial services sector in Ireland. Topical themes dealt with in the strategy include sustainable finance with implementation of Ireland’s Sustainable Finance Roadmap a priority measure of the Action Plan . Other themes are Fintech and Digital Finance and Regionalisation and Promotion which looks to promote Ireland as a location for industry and support regional development.
The Government recently launched the Irish Innovation Seed Fund Programme, a new €90 million fund for Irish start-ups. It will provide vital capital to innovative Irish companies at the crucial seed stage and will be an important step in developing and growing the Irish equity ecosystem. Investment will be targeted and prioritised in areas such as regional development, climate change and female entrepreneurship. It will also focus on sectors that have experienced difficulty in attracting early-stage investment including life sciences healthcare and pharma and fintech. A first call for proposals under the programme will launch shortly on the European Investment Fund website. The fund programme will be led by Enterprise Ireland, with the European Investment Fund acting as fund manager.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority’s Executive Director for Markets spoke on Tuesday at the City and Financial Global summit. She discussed the future of UK financial services regulation and in particular the opportunities that lie ahead for financial markets. Reminding listeners that the FCA is Europe’s largest prudential regulator by number of firms, she spoke about the FCA’s priorities, the UK Government’s Future Regulatory Framework (FRF) Review: Proposals for Reform and what you can expect to see from the FCA in the months ahead. You can click here for details of her speech and here for the FRF Review.
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