2008 News Items
CESR publishes fourth extract from its database of enforcement decisions taken by EU national supervisors of financial information (IFRS)Wednesday, 24th December, 2008: The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has published a fourth extract from its database of enforcement decisions taken by EU national supervisors of financial information that participate in the European Enforcer Co-Ordination Sessions (EECS). This extract can be accessed here. EU national supervisors monitor and review the financial statements of issuers and consider whether they comply with IFRS and other applicable reporting requirements, including relevant national law. The EECS is a forum in which all EU/EEA national supervisors of financial information, whether CESR members or not, meet to share the reasons underpinning their accounting enforcement decisions, canvas members’ views on issues currently being dealt with and to identify issues which do not appear to be covered by financial reporting standards or which may be affected by conflicting interpretations for referral to standard setting or interpretive bodies such as the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) or the International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee (IFRIC). CESR has developed a confidential database of enforcement decisions taken by individual EU national supervisors as a source of information to foster appropriate application of IFRS. All decisions submitted to the database are considered as appropriate for publication, unless: • similar decisions have already been published by CESR, and publication of a new decision would not add any substantial value to the fostering of consistent application; • the decision deals with a simple accounting issue that, even having been considered a material infringement, does not in itself have any accounting merit; • there is no consensus within the EECS to support the submitted decision; • a particular EU National enforcer, on a grounded and justified basis, believes that the decision should not be published. In response to concerns about confidentiality and privacy laws, which vary between EU jurisdictions, extracts do not, usually, include the name of the issuer or the enforcer or any other details that would enable the issuer or its jurisdiction to be identified. IAASA is a member of the EECS and the Authority’s Head of Financial Reporting Supervision is also a member of the EECS’ Agenda Group. Accordingly, in addition to contributing to the EECS’ plenary meetings, IAASA also has a direct input to, and involvement in: • the review of emerging cases and decisions as tabled by Member States’ enforcement authorities with a view to assessing those which should be afforded priority for consideration and discussion at the plenary; and • the review of enforcement decisions taken by EU accounting enforcers with a view to determining whether they should be published. Note: In some EU jurisdictions national supervisors may provide an opinion on a particular accounting issue before an issuer’s financial statements have been finalised and published. This is not the case in Ireland. These ‘pre-clearance’ decisions are made on the basis of information and assumptions supplied by an issuer to the relevant national enforcer. Pre-clearance decisions are identified as such in the CESR publication. Press statement concerning recent developments at Anglo Irish Bank Corporation plcTuesday, 23rd December, 2008: At its meeting of 23 December 2008, the Board of the Irish Auditing & Accounting Supervisory Authority (‘IAASA’) decided to appoint a senior staff member to observe the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland’s response to recent developments at Anglo Irish Bank Corporation plc. The Board’s decision, which was taken having regard to public interest considerations, follows the Press Statement of 19 December 2008 issued by the Institute’s Chartered Accountants’ Regulatory Board in which it was stated that the circumstances around the issue of inappropriate loans at the bank and the role played by any members of the Institute are to be examined. ENDS/ [Click here for downloadable version & editors’ note] Christmas Opening ArrangementsChristmas, 2008: The Authority’s offices will be open as follows for the Christmas period:
Authority publishes draft Work Programme 2009-11Wednesday, 26th November, 2008: The Companies (Auditing and Accounting) Act 2003 provides that the Authority shall, at three yearly intervals, prepare a new Work Programme. Further to that requirement and given that the Authority’s extant Work Programme is due to expire at the end of the current year, the Authority has developed a draft Work Programme in respect of the period 2009 to 2011. In advance of adopting the new Work Programme in final form the Authority would welcome comments from interested parties on the draft and, to that end, a copy of the draft Work Programme can be accessed at here. Comments, which should be addressed to the Chief Executive, should reach the Authority by close of business on 16 January 2009. Authority invites comments on draft Section 24 RegulationsFriday, 19th September, 2008: The Authority has today published draft Regulations governing the conduct of statutory Investigations under Section 24 of the Companies (Auditing and Accounting) Act 2003. Interested parties’ views are being sought on the draft Regulations and, to assist contributors in framing their responses, the Authority has also published an accompanying Consultation Paper. The draft Regulations and Consultation Paper can be accessed here. The closing date for submissions is Friday, 12th December, 2008. Pending the completion of the final Regulations, the draft Regulations will serve as interim Regulations. Authority invites expressions of interest regarding future external appointments to Section 23 and 24 CommitteesFriday, 19th September, 2008: The Authority is seeking expressions of interest from persons who wish to be considered for future appointment to Committees established under its Section 23 and interim Section 24 Regulations. Expressions are, in particular, invited from persons with relevant expertise and experience in areas such as (i) the professional and ethical standards applying to members of the accountancy profession; (ii) law and/or practice governing the regulation of members of a profession; (iii) civil litigation in areas of relevance (for example, regulatory law, Judicial Review and statutory interpretation). Further detail of how to express interest and of the information sought can be accessed here. The closing date for receipt of expressions of interest has now past. Career opportunities for accounting professionals within IAASAFriday, 12th September, 2008: The Authority wishes to recruit a number of key professional staff. Details of the posts on offer can be viewed here. This closing date for applications under this competition has now past. Forthcoming presentation on the Authority’s Commentary on Half-yearly ReportsMonday, 7th July, 2008: Mr Michael Kavanagh, Head of Financial Reporting Supervision with the Authority, [will be delivering] delivered a presentation on the Authority’s recently published Commentary on Half-yearly Reports at an ICAI hosted event on 29 July. The Commentary can be accessed here. As the event is now past, contact details have been removed from the news item. A copy of the presentation can be downloaded here. Authority publishes commentary on the results of its financial reporting review activitiesFriday, 13th June, 2008: The Authority has today published a commentary on the results of its financial reporting review activities pursuant to its role as a competent authority for certain aspects of the Transparency (Directive 2004/109/EC) Regulations, 2007. The full text of the commentary can be downloaded here, or on request via any of our contact points. The accompanying press release and editors’ notes can be accessed here. EU Commission issues Recommendation regarding statutory auditors’ liabilityFriday, 6th June, 2008: In a Recommendation issued to EU Member States today, the EU Commission has recommended that the civil liability of statutory auditors and audit firms arising from breaches of their professional duties should be limited, except in cases of intentional breach of duties by statutory auditors or audit firms. The Commission has further recommended that: • the limitation of liability should apply against the company audited and any third party entitled under national law to bring a claim for compensation; and • any limitation of civil liability should not prevent injured parties from being fairly compensated. The Recommendation does not prescribe a single means by which Member States might introduce limits on liability. Rather, the Commission has recommended that any one or more of the following methods in particular be used: a. establishment of a maximum financial amount or of a formula allowing for the calculation of such an amount (i.e. a cap); b. establishment of a set of principles by virtue of which a statutory auditor or an audit firm is not liable beyond its actual contribution to the loss suffered by a claimant and is accordingly not jointly and severally liable with other wrongdoers (i.e. proportionate liability); c. provision allowing any company to be audited and the statutory auditor or audit firm to determine a limitation of liability in an agreement (i.e. limitation by contract). The Commission has further recommended that, before adopting measures implementing any of the methods referred to above (or any other method of limiting liability), Member States should take into account the impact any such limitation of liability on financial markets and investors and on conditions for access to the market of statutory audit for listed companies, as well as the impact on audit quality, insurability of risks and the companies to be audited. Explaining the context for the Recommendation, Internal Market and Services Commissioner, Charlie McCreevy said: “After in-depth research and extensive consultation, we have concluded that unlimited liability combined with insufficient insurance cover is no longer tenable. It is a potentially huge problem for our capital markets and for auditors working on an international scale. The current conditions are not only preventing the entry of new players in the international audit market, but are also threatening existing firms. In a context of high concentration and limited choice of audit firms, this situation could lead to damaging consequences for European capital markets.” Domestically, the issue of auditors’ liability reform was referred to the Company Law Review Group (CLRG) last year by the Minister for Trade & Commerce and the CLRG is expected to report its conclusions and recommendations shortly. The full text of the Recommendation, together with the associated Commission press statement, can be accessed here. Authority launches second Annual ReportThursday, 22nd May, 2008: The Authority has today launched its second Annual Report. A copy of the associated press release can be found here. CESR publishes third extract from its database of enforcement decisions taken by EU national supervisors of financial information (IFRS)Tuesday, 20th May, 2008: The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has published a third extract from its database of enforcement decisions taken by EU national supervisors of financial information that participate in the European Enforcer Co-Ordination Sessions (EECS). EU national supervisors monitor and review the financial statements of issuers and consider whether they comply with IFRS and other applicable reporting requirements, including relevant national law. The EECS is a forum in which all EU/EEA national supervisors of financial information, whether CESR members or not, meet to share the reasons underpinning their accounting enforcement decisions, canvas members’ views on issues currently being dealt with and to identify issues which do not appear to be covered by financial reporting standards or which may be affected by conflicting interpretations for referral to standard setting or interpretive bodies such as the IASB or IFRIC. CESR has developed a confidential database of enforcement decisions taken by individual EU national supervisors as a source of information to foster appropriate application of IFRS. All decisions submitted to the this database are considered as appropriate for publication, unless:
In response to concerns about confidentiality and privacy laws, which vary between EU jurisdictions, extracts do not, usually, include the name of the issuer or the enforcer or any other details that would enable the issuer or its jurisdiction to be identified. The Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority (IAASA) is a member of the EECS and the Head of Financial Reporting Supervision is also a member of the EECS’ Agenda Group. Accordingly, in addition to contributing to the Group’s plenary meetings, IAASA has a direct input to, and involvement in:
Note: In some EU jurisdictions national supervisors may provide an opinion on a particular accounting issue before an issuer’s accounts have been finalised and published. This is not the case in Ireland. These “pre-clearance” decisions are made on the basis of information and assumptions supplied by an issuer to the relevant national enforcer. Pre-clearance decisions are identified as such in the CESR publication. The most recent material published by CESR can be accessed here Authority makes professional appointmentsMonday, 12th May, 2008: The Irish Auditing & Accounting Supervisory Authority is pleased to announce three recent appointments to its professional staff. Mr John O’Malley joins the Authority as Head of Legal Services. Mr O’Malley, who is a solicitor by profession, has also been appointed to the position of Secretary to the Authority. Mr O’Malley joins the Authority from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, where he was Head of Professional Conduct. Mr Trevor Rushe joins the Authority as a Project Manager attached to the Regulatory & Monitoring Supervision Unit. Mr Rushe, who is an accountant by profession, joins the Authority from the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland, where he was a Quality Assurance Executive. Mr Maurice Barrett joins the Authority as a Project Manager attached to the Financial Reporting Supervision Unit. Mr Barrett, who is also an accountant by profession, joins the Authority from PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he was a Senior Manager in the area of assurance. European Commission issues recommendation on external quality assurance for statutory auditors.Thursday, 8th May, 2008: The European Commission has issued a recommendation on external quality assurance for statutory auditors and audit firms auditing public interest entities. The full text of the recommendation can be found here. A copy of the related press release, dated 13 May, 2008, can be accessed here. Meeting of the International Forum of Independent Audit RegulatorsFriday, 11th April, 2008: On 9-11 April, 2008 independent audit regulators from 22 countries participated in the third meeting of the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators (IFIAR). Details of the membership of IFIAR can be accessed from the IFIAR website, www.ifiar.org. The host for the meeting was Kredittilsynet - the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway. The meeting was chaired by Paul Boyle, Chairman of IFIAR and Chief Executive Officer, UK Financial Reporting Council, and by Prof Dr Steven Maijoor, Vice-Chairman of IFIAR and Managing Director, Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets. Representatives of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), the Public Interest Oversight Board (PIOB), the World Bank and the European Commission also participated as observers on 10 April. On 11 April IFIAR was joined by delegations led by the global CEOs of Ernst & Young, Grant Thornton and PricewaterhouseCoopers for individual discussion with each firm regarding their global quality monitoring arrangements. Similar discussions will be held with delegations led by the global CEOs of BDO, Deloitte, and KPMG at IFIAR’s next meeting in September, 2008. New Members The Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) of Luxembourg and the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) of Mauritius were admitted as members at the meeting, thus bringing the membership of IFIAR up to 24 jurisdictions. Current market turbulence Members reviewed the role of audit regulators in the current market turbulence and agreed to discuss members’ experiences at their next meeting. Audit quality Members exchanged views on audit quality issues. They agreed to continue work on understanding potential indicators of audit quality and to review progress at their next meeting. Audit inspection workshops Audit inspections remain a core area of focus for IFIAR. Following its successful second audit inspection workshop - held in Berlin in January, 2008 - IFIAR has decided to hold a further workshop early in 2009 to provide an opportunity for the continuing exchange of inspection techniques and experiences. Foreign auditor registration Members noted the arrangements currently, or shortly to be, in place in a number of jurisdictions requiring the registration and/or notification of the auditors of foreign issuers. Exchange of information between audit regulators In the light of prospective changes in legal requirements in a number of jurisdictions, members will continue to keep under review the impediments to information exchange between national regulators in relation to ongoing supervision, investigation and enforcement activities in respect of cross-border group audits and international audit networks. Issues relating to International Auditing Standards Members received a presentation from John Kellas, Chairman, International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB), on the current work programme and priorities of the IAASB. They discussed the value of exchanging views on international auditing and ethical standards under development and on their application. Audit market concentration and choice Members received updates on the steps taken in some jurisdictions to examine the issues of concentration and choice in the audit market. Dialogue with other international organisations IFIAR received reports from each of the Observers on their work in the field of auditing. It will maintain its dialogue with other international organisations having an interest in audit quality. Future role and organisation of IFIAR The IFIAR representatives present in Oslo agreed on the text of a Charter for IFIAR which members expect to adopt at IFIAR’s next meeting in September. Next meeting IFIAR will hold its next meeting in Cape Town on 22-24 September, 2008 at the invitation of the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA) of South Africa. Further information about IFIAR can be found at www.ifiar.org. Easter Opening ArrangementsThursday, 20th March, 2008: The Authority’s offices will be closed tomorrow, (Friday) and Monday next, 24th March. The offices will reopen on Tuesday, 25th March. International audit regulators hold second workshop on audit inspectionsWednesday, 30th January, 2008: The second Inspection Workshop for members of the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators (‘IFIAR’) was held in Berlin on 29-30 January 2008 and was hosted by the German Auditor Oversight Commission. The theme of the workshop was “Developing Inspection Processes”. The first IFIAR Inspection Workshop, on the theme of “Audit Inspection Techniques”, was held in Amsterdam in May 2007. The Workshop in Berlin was attended by 63 participants from 20 of the 22 IFIAR member countries, thus contributing to IFIAR’s overall goal of enhancing audit quality internationally through sharing practical experience of independent audit regulatory activity. The Workshop built on the more general overview given in the first workshop by covering selected elements of audit firm inspection in more detail. It first addressed topics related to whole-firm inspections and included leadership, strategy and culture, independence and ethics and client acceptance and continuance. It then moved on to topics related to audit file reviews and included risk-based selection and review of issuer audit engagements. The Workshop also discussed issues relevant to performing inspections in the current market environment. IFIAR was established by independent audit regulators in 2006 to share knowledge of the audit market environment and practical experience of independent audit regulatory activity, to promote collaboration in regulatory activity, and to provide a focus for contacts with other international organisations which have an interest in audit quality. The Irish Auditing & Accounting Supervisory Authority was a founding member of IFIAR. Further information about IFIAR can be found at www.ifiar.org. Career opportunities within IAASAWednesday, 16th January, 2008: The Authority wishes to recruit a number of key professional staff. Details of the posts on offer can be viewed here. An indicative job specification for the Head of Legal Services position can be accessed here. This competition is now closed, and further applications cannot be considered at this time. Prospective candidates should note that it is proposed to hold interviews for the posts on offer on 6, 7 and/or 8 February, 2008. |
Irish Auditing & Accounting |
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