Welcome to this week’s Technical Roundup.
In developments this week, the Financial Reporting Council has welcomed the Government’s response to its consultation ‘Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance’ which sets out the next steps to reform the UK’s audit and corporate governance framework and the Irish Revenue Commissioners recently published their Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2021, including progress on the implementation of Revenue’s Statement of Strategy and key statistics.
Read more on these and other developments that may be of interest to members below.
Auditing
The UK government has published plans which aim to revamp the UK’s corporate reporting and audit regime through a new regulator, greater accountability for big business and by addressing the dominance of the main audit firms.
The plans, which build upon the recommendations of independent reviews by Sir John Kingman, Sir Donald Brydon, and the Competition and Markets Authority, were published on 31 May in the government’s response to a public consultation on audit and corporate governance reform.
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published anonymised key findings and good practices reported by its Audit Quality Review (AQR) team in relation to their 2020/21 audit quality inspections at the seven largest audit firms.
The FRC has welcomed the Government’s response to its consultation ‘Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance’ which sets out the next steps to reform the UK’s audit and corporate governance framework.
Financial Reporting
EFRAG have issued the set of Basis for Conclusions of its European Sustainability Reporting Standards Exposure Drafts. The Basis for Conclusion accompanies, but is not part of, the Exposure Drafts and as a result has no authoritative status. Instead, the Basis for conclusion illustrates the objectives and context of the draft standards and the process followed. They are a useful source of information for those who plan on responding to the ESRS public consultation launched on 29th April.
The IASB have issued their May 2022 update and the IFRS Foundation has issued its May 2022 monthly news summary.
Anti-money laundering
Chartered Accountants Ireland is pleased to have been involved this week in publishing training material as part of a joint practice group with GNECB and the Garda FIU and a number of other accountancy bodies. The material aims to assist professional accountants and their staff. Please find attached an open-source document that may be used by any person for the purposes of assisting in understanding the requirements of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 to 2021 and to help identify potential money laundering risks with clients. The document can also be found on the Institute's technical hub on the anti-money laundering ‘red flag’ know the signs subpage.
Cryptocurrency/cryptoassets
The Central Bank Director of Financial Regulation: Policy & Risk spoke this week at Blockchain Ireland Week 2022. He spoke of the general challenges with blockchain or cryptotechnology including risk mitigation. He also spoke about authorisation with some reference to the Central Bank’s recent experience in respect of VASP authorisation and the European Commission’s draft regulatory framework, draft Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation. You can read the full text of his speech here .
Readers with an interest in cryptoassets may also be interested in the Central Bank’s recent reply to a letter from Deputy Emer Higgins TD. That correspondence dated 25 April 2022 noted her recent press release to highlight the risks around crypto assets and her call for an information campaign. The Central Bank pointed to its work in the area including a proposed legislative framework at EU level and warnings which it has issued on the subject. See a copy of the letter here.
Other Areas of Interest
To build on their existing shared work in supporting registered charities to further enhance levels of public trust and confidence in the sector, the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland and the Charities Regulatory Authority have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
The Irish Revenue Commissioners recently published their Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2021, including progress on the implementation of Revenue’s Statement of Strategy and key statistics. You can read a copy of the report here.
The Irish Dept. of Justice recently announced that James Hamilton who led the December 2020 “Hamilton Review” (of Structures and Strategies to Prevent, Investigate and Penalise Economic Crime and Corruption) will take up the role of independent chair of the new Advisory Council recommended under that review. The Council will advise and make proposals on strategic and policy responses and will be responsible for developing a multi-annual strategy to combat economic crime and corruption. You can read more about it here.
The Dept. of Enterprise Trade & Employment has issued its June newsletter. It includes information on the new Enterprise Digital Advisory Forum and AI Ambassador and Impact 2030: Ireland’s Research and Innovation Strategy. You can click here to access the newsletter.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has recently published its consumer protection list for Jan-Dec 2021. It details the CCPC’s consumer protection enforcement activities over the past year such as enforcement actions and compliance notices. This report also has a 2021 Highlight: Pyramid Promotional Schemes. You can read the CCPC’s news item here and read the report here.
In other Central Bank news, the Central Bank of Ireland this week published its 2021 Annual Report and Annual Performance Statement 2021-2022. It gives an overview of the key activities and work undertaken by the Central Bank. You can read the press release here and download the report here.
The Central Bank governor at a recent meeting of financial leaders discussed the role of central banks in tackling climate change. He said central banks along with others have to play a role in tackling the climate challenge, climate change affects the capacity of central banks to meet their mandates. Of the Central Bank of Ireland, he said they have identified the risks of climate change and support the transition to a carbon-neutral economy as an integral theme in their strategy. He mentioned also the dedicated Climate Change Unit which it has established to help steer that agenda and bring additional focus to their work in this area and their recent call for expressions of interest to join their Climate Forum.
The Irish Pensions Authority has recently issued an update for master trusts in advance of the 1 July 2022 compliance deadline for new legislative provisions and the code of practice issued last year. You can access the information update here.
A new piece of legislation, The Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2022, has now come into effect, having received Royal assent on 30 March 2022.
The Charity Commission NI has published extensive information on the new Act and the impact it will have on charities and their legal duties here.
For further technical information and updates please visit the Technical Hub on the Institute website.
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