Search Results for: accountancy

Fashion retailers worldwide have publicly committed themselves to achieving ambitious sustainability goals, ranging from reduced emissions to greater circularity of materials through more effective recycling. Some of these goals have been adopted from external sources, such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) (https://sdgs.un.org/goals…

Australia has long been a laggard in AML/CFT, despite being a leading developed democracy – but its current Labor government has finally bitten the bullet on reform.

In September, it proposed an Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) Amendment Bill 2024 (1).…

Auditors can play a major role in fighting fraud, with the onset of sustainability reporting creating a new opportunity to sniff out swindles. Keith Nuthall reports.

While the initial goal of audits is not to detect fraud, rather to say whether financial statements (and latterly, sustainability reports) are accurate, these assessments do often uncover crime.…

Profiling fraudsters can hone anti-fraud responses, helping investigators short-list likely suspects for detailed evaluation – and with profiling research and experience expanding, the effectiveness of such approaches is sharpening.

Forensic accountant and fraud examiner Dave Oswald, who runs Canadian anti-fraud consultancy Forensic Restitution (1), said: “Fraudster profiling can provide valuable insights into the minds of those who commit these crimes, helping law enforcement agencies and organizations to prevent, detect, and respond to fraudulent activity.”…

The launch of European Sustainably Reporting Standards (ESRS), guiding mandatory European Union (EU) sustainability reports, coming progressively into mandatory force across the EU from 2025 (1), is pushing EU auditors to expand their skill sets.

They are already having to audit comprehensive EU sustainability reports for major companies, focused on double materiality concerns of a company’s impact on the environment and society as well as its financial exposure to such social and environmental trends.…

It is a rule of thumb that every new economic and social innovation brings its response in fraud, and the phalanx of sustainability reporting rules and certification is expected to prompt a wave of environmental fraud.

Companies have long been accused of ‘greenwashing – making false sustainability claims about their goods and services – and regulators are increasingly cracking down on the practice, with a new European Union (EU) green claims directive under consideration.…

Anti-fraud professionals are seeking greater access to larger data pools, inside and outside their organisations, to improve the ability of audit procedures to identify financial crime.

Said Linda Miller, founder and CEO, of the US-based fraud risk consultancy Audient Group: “Fraud is a data problem.…

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has pledged over the next two years to help companies transition to making IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 declarations rather than developing additional sustainability reporting standards. It will focus “on the provision of high-quality, decision-useful information”, including help in measuring greenhouse gas emissions.…

With AML, it is tough to say where the buck stops, but governments are addressing the need to ensure AML supervisory authorities are themselves assessed, to keep standards high. The issue was central to the recently agreed European Union (EU) AML/CFT reforms that authorised the launch in the EU of an Anti Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), approved by the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament in May (2024).…

With the European Parliament (EU) and EU Council of Ministers finally approving a major overhaul of EU anti-money laundering (AML) laws, EU accountants will have to change their practices to comply with tighter laws. The key impact on accountants would come under a new comprehensive AML Regulation, an EU legal instrument that must be followed to the letter, rather than giving member states more leeway on implementation, as with past (and continuing) EU AML directives (1).…