Thought Leadership


  • Tax issues and the Audit Committee
    In this article, we review the limitations of using the external auditor for tax planning services and should the audit committee permit tax shelters to be sold by non-audit partners of the external auditor.
  • A well-functioning Audit Committee is the key to achieving good governance
    Based on the new rules and regulations on auditor independence and board responsibilities, all audit committee have to update their charter, composition and configuration to comply. We suggest that a review, assessment and evaluation of the impact, principles, practices and functions must be conducted, before the new regime goes into effect. At the Audit Committee events in Copenhagen and London, participants will receive three different tools to implement, adopt or update the new requirements.
  • Updating the Auditor Independence and Audit Committee issues
    After significant changes in 2002 post-Enron scandal, the rules governing the external auditor and therefore the audit committee are now fast evolving. The EU regulations that come into force in June 2016 aims to improve selection, competition, price and choice by changing the external auditor. The professional services firms are heavily investing in new intelligent technology and data analytics, to take care of routine audit chores. The merry-go-round of audits substitutions between the Big Four — PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG is rotating.
  • Implications of audit regulation and directive to restore integrity and trust between companies, markets, and the audit committee
    Audit committee members and external auditors, in particular, are the most important gatekeepers to provide attention to financial reporting and financial fraud processes. Each function has a responsibility to foster high-quality, reliable financial reporting. Stakeholders recognise that audit committee members and statutory auditors exercise a significant amount of judgment on a day-to-day basis, and are not in the business of second-guessing good faith judgments. The focus of the seminar is to provide updated guidance on how audit committee members can carry out their responsibilities, and how auditors can comply with relevant auditing standards in their audit work, based on the audit reform.
  • Audit Committee Network
    Global companies are increasingly met by new regulations and mandates, that continually challenge the corporate governance, risk management, compliance and IT security (GRC) processes and therefore make greater demands to the audit committee. The Copenhagen Compliance® UK Ltd.’s UK Audit Committee Governance Network is a group of audit committee chairs, members, and stakeholders who are committed to improving the performance of audit committees and the board of directors by enhancing trust in financial markets and all stakeholders.
  • The New Audit Committee Stewardship Framework (Part I of II)
    When things go wrong in a company, it is often due to lack of adherence, monitoring and independent assurance of right governance processes in the organisation. One of the primary reasons when management, the chairman or the audit committee member is forced to say; 'we were not aware' is often due to the undermining of trust in the financial accounts, culture and the GRC activities to obtain confidence in the performance. Management tools like the 'whistle-blower' function, 'compliance' and 'tone-of-the-top' are valuable however in this article we focus on the role and responsibility of the audit committee to avoid a corporate failure.
  • The New Audit Committee Stewardship Framework (Part II of II)
    The updated central role of the Audit Committee goes beyond enhancing the audit quality and building confidence in the integrity of financial disclosures. The new stewardship role of the audit committee will be critical in creating the right environment for corporate performance including the board's responsibility to create a platform of the business culture of integrity, respect, accountability and transparency. Audit committees must develop an audit strategy, to address significant audit risks, appropriate independence and effectiveness of the external auditor.
  • How to solve the new audit committee mandates and responsibilities
    The audit committee is a cornerstone of the board of director's duties. Its mandate now extends well beyond the oversight of financial reporting and includes key areas that determine the organisation's performance, risk management, compliance, accountability, the integrity of quality data, cyber risk, and the effectiveness of internal control over operations. The long list of oversight responsibilities gets more complicated because the amount of time the audit committee members can commit is often the same.