Value of Audit blog

14 May 2014
Yesterday saw the first in the economia Value of Audit roundtable series, in association with KPMG.
Here is some of the best reaction from the participants and on social media

- See more at: http://economia.icaew.com/opinion/may-2014/value-of-audit-blog#sthash.01jC2ri4.dpuf

23:39 Updated : 05:13

economia has launched the Value of Audit discussion series, in association with KPMG. Taking the form
of a series of open roundtable discussions hosted in the major capital markets around the world (so far,
London, Johannesburg and Frankfurt are confirmed) the ambition is to address the current questions
around with groups of representatives from all corners of the profession: with each panel including
regulators and standard setters, auditors, CFOs and audit committee chairs, investor representatives
and other corporate governance experts.

The first session took place in London on 13 May and the panel included KPMGs UK head of audit Tony
Cates and Mark Vaessen KPMGs global head of IFRS, Pearsons CFO Robin Freestone, Melanie McLaren,
the FRCs executive director for codes and standards, Peter Montagnon, associate director at the
Institute of Business Ethics, Paul Boyle, Avivas chief audit officer, Will Pomroy, NAPF policy lead on
governance issues, and audit committee chairman and Alan Ferguson non-executive director and chair
of four audit committees.

23:48
economia editor Richard Cree, who chaired the discussion, launched the series with a piece on the
issues facing audit.

When EU Commissioner Michel Barnier made his now infamous comments in the immediate aftermath
of the financial crisis that the credit shock represented a major failure of auditors to identify structural
risks and systemic weaknesses in large financial institutions (he called auditors the watchdogs that

didnt bark), it was seen by many as a potential driver to spark a genuine revolution in the way not only
audit functioned, but also in the way the entire system of capitalist democracy operated.

The end of the age of greed and of rapacious vulture capitalism would give rise to a more enlightened
age of responsible capitalism, long-term stewardship and even something obliquely called stakeholder
capitalism. If nothing else happened, it was clear that we were in for a period of upheaval in the audit
profession.

Now, five years on, auditors and audit firms of all sizes face a different landscape.

00:27
More information on the series can be found here http://bit.ly/1mrksW0

http://economia.icaew.com/opinion/may-2014/value-of-audit-blog