Welcome to the latest edition of Technical Roundup which is published on the first and third Friday of every month.
In developments since the last edition, Chartered Accountants Ireland has issued its response to the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) Exposure Draft ‘Climate-related risks and Other Uncertainties in the Financial Statements’. The Pensions Authority has published a dedicated website page for information on the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).
Read more on these and other developments that may be of interest to members below.
Audit and Assurance
IAASA has published Inspection Insight Series 5: International Standard on Quality Management Ireland 1 (ISQM 1). This paper sets out the key requirements for audit firms relating to ISQM1, IAASA’s findings from their quality assurance reviews and areas of good practice noted by IAASA.
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published its annual report on the quality of major local audits, which also sets out how it will continue to support the local audit system to recover from delays in the publication of audited accounts.
The FRC has published its annual Audit Market and Competition Update for 2024. The report shows that in the UK the Big Four audit firms continue to dominate the market earning 98% of FTSE 350 audit fees and 90% of all PIE audit fees. However, challenger audit firms’ share of FT350 audit engagements grew to 13% in 2023. The FRC is evolving its approach to audit market competition, addressing stakeholder concerns such as differences in quality between the largest and smaller audit firms. You can access the report on this link.
Earlier this year the FRC published an update to its Ethical Standard for auditors, effective from 15 December 2024.
The updated ethical standard
- simplifies the existing ethical standard and provided additional clarity in a limited number of areas.
- the new standard takes into account recent revisions made to the international IESBA Code of Ethics.
- there is a new targeted restriction on fees from entities related by a single controlling party
Read more and access the revised standard here.
Financial Reporting
Chartered Accountants Ireland has issued its response to the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) Exposure Draft “Climate-related risks and Other Uncertainties in the Financial Statements”. The Exposure Draft, which proposes eight examples illustrating how entities may apply the requirements in IFRS Accounting Standards to report the effects of climate-related and other uncertainties in its financial statements, was issued by the IASB in July 2024.
The UK Endorsement Board has also published its Final Comment Letter and Feedback Statement in response to the same Exposure Draft.
EFRAG, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group has published its October 2024 update which summarises public technical discussions and decisions taken during the month.
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has updated their suite of factsheets addressing FRS 102. For more information on this please see our news item here.
The FRC has published its Annual Review of Corporate Governance Reporting.
EFRAG has published its Final Comment Letter on the IASB's Exposure Draft Translation to a Hyperinflationary Presentation Currency - Proposed amendments to IAS 21.
EFRAG has published its Final Comment Letter on the IASB's Exposure Draft Amendments to IFRS 19 Subsidiaries without Public Accountability: Disclosures. The UK Endorsement Board has also published its response to this Exposure Draft.
EFRAG’s discussion paper “The Statement of Cashflows objectives, usages and issues” has been published, with the objective of listing the perceived issues with cash flow statements presented in accordance with IAS 7. Comments are requested by EFRAG by 15 May 2025.
The International Accounting Standards Board has published its November 2024 update and podcast.
Insolvency
The CCAB-I Insolvency Committee has recently published Technical Alert 03/2024 Succession Planning for Insolvency Practitioners. Insolvency appointments are taken in a personal capacity by an Insolvency Practitioner, who has an obligation to ensure that cases are properly managed at all times, and to have appropriate contingency arrangements in place to cover a change in the Insolvency Practitioner’s circumstances. This Technical Alert maps out a succession plan for an Insolvency Practitioner and covers some of the high-level considerations and discussion points to be considered by Insolvency Practitioners.
Sustainability
The European Commission has published a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) to support stakeholders in the implementation of the EU taxonomy, a classification system for sustainable economic activities. The FAQs provide technical clarifications regarding various elements of the EU taxonomy. Examples of matters included are the application of general taxonomy requirements and technical screening criteria for specific activities included in the Taxonomy Climate and Environmental Delegated Acts and they also address the generic ‘do no significant harm’ (DNSH) criteria that ensure that economic activities contributing to one of the environmental objectives set out in the Taxonomy Regulation do not cause significant harm to any of the other environmental objectives.
The 2024 edition of KPMG’s Survey of Sustainability Reporting, which surveyed 5,800 large companies across 58 countries showed that GRI usage has risen to 71%. The survey also identified an increasing prevalence of companies obtaining independent assurance on their sustainability reporting as well as an increase in the number of companies carrying out double materiality assessments, both of which are practices that will soon become mandatory for certain companies in the European Union.
A recording of EFRAG’s recent webinar “ESRS for Non-EU Groups” is available to view via the EFRAG website.
The IFRS Foundation has published some educational material entitled “Sustainability-related risks and opportunities and the disclosure of material information”. The publication is focussed on helping companies understand how the concept of sustainability-related risks and opportunities is described in IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information, including how these can arise from a company’s dependencies and impacts.
The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has published its November 2024 update and podcast.
As many jurisdictions worldwide make decisions locally regarding whether (or how) they adopt ISSB reporting standards, the IFRS Foundation continues to compile a list of the ongoing and completed Jurisdictional sustainability consultations. This is a useful reference point for anyone trying to establish the reporting requirements of various countries worldwide.
The IFRS Foundation has published a recording of its fifth Perspectives on sustainability disclosure webinar which is titled 'The state of assurance for sustainability disclosures'.
Accountancy Europe has published its November 2024 Sustainability Update.
Digital, Cyber, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Crypto
The Pensions Authority has published a dedicated website page for information on the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).
Central Bank of Ireland (CBI)
Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland Gabriel Makhlouf was invited to speak at a Financial Services Ireland event on 20 November to talk about The Role of Financial Services in the Irish Economy.
Legislation
You can read our recent news item on the signing and part commencement of the Companies (Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Regulatory Provisions) Act, 2024. We have selected those provisions which we think will be of most interest to our members and have identified what has been commenced on 3 December 2024 and what awaits commencement in 2025.
Click to go to the CEA website where you can read about the key changes introduced by this Act which concern the Corporate Enforcement Authority .
Other
Please click to read the latest from the Corporate Enforcement Authority December newsletter and click here if you want to subscribe to the CEA newsletter.
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published its Annual Review of Corporate Governance Reporting 2024, providing important insights as companies prepare to implement the revised UK Corporate Governance Code from January 2025.
The Pensions Authority has published information on the Annual Compliance Statement (ACS) for 2024 that is provided for under the Pensions Act. The form to be used for the ACS is available under Related File(s) on their website with a deadline for completion of 31 January 2025.
Accountancy Europe has issued its December 2024 SME update.
This information is provided as resources and information only and nothing in the information purports to provide professional advice or definitive legal interpretation(s) or opinion(s) on the applicable legislation or legal or other matters referred to in the information. If the reader is in doubt on any matter in this complex area further legal or other advice must be obtained. While every reasonable care has been taken by the Institute in the preparation of the information we do not guarantee the accuracy or veracity of any resource, guidance, information or opinion, or the appropriateness, suitability or applicability of any practice or procedure contained therein. The Institute is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of the resources or information contained herein.
LOADING...