In 2017, I watched the Ben Affleck film The Accountant, only because I thought it might provide material for a blog post: it wasn’t easy, but I did it (capsule takeaway: “To me the film feels largely cluttered and unilluminating, but at least it allows that an accountant might be defined by more than simply…
Here’s a stimulating LinkedIn commentary from internal audit professional John Johnson: Something interesting is happening in the auditing profession right now. 1. Regulators are pulling back on formal mandates. Some examples: – The NYSE proposed extending the internal audit function requirement for newly listed companies from one year to five.– The SEC proposed raising the…
In its September meeting, the ISSB received an update on its human capital project. The staff paper noted the following as an area where more research is required: the importance of emerging workforce-related risks and opportunities, particularly those related to AI— AI deployment has advanced significantly over the course of the project and our discussions…
Between all the work done by regulators and standard-setters, striking examples of potentially misleading “non-GAAP measures” aren’t as easy to come by as they used to be. The AI company Anthropic recently provided a good one though, albeit falling into somewhat of a “hearsay” category as the company is privately held and doesn’t yet report…
Canadian securities regulators decline to oversee sports, entertainment contracts for prediction markets, announced a recent Globe and Mail headline Here’s some of what the article had to say: The Canadian Securities Administrators, an umbrella organization made up of provincial and territorial securities regulators, and the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization, or CIRO, issued a joint statement…
Let’s return to the IFRS 18 concept of management-defined performance measures. You’ll recall that the new standard defines such a measure as ‘a subtotal of income and expenses that an entity uses in public communications outside financial statements; to communicate to users of financial statements management’s view of an aspect of the financial performance of…
As we’ve covered before, the KPMG Australia has put whistleblowers in the spotlight. And it appears it may not be over yet: SYDNEY, Aug 14 (Reuters) – “Many, many more” whistleblowers have come forward with reports of misconduct at KPMG Australia, a parliamentary committee probing alleged client data leaks at the firm heard on Friday,…
And now for something completely different – Didrik Thrane-Nielsen, Project Director at European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, recently set out to “trigger some thinking on the basic building blocks in IFRS” by providing new proposed definitions for assets and liabilities, and issuing a challenge: “Please come up with one or more practical example(s) where the…
A couple of decades ago I was doing some work on the topic of executive compensation disclosure, and would have lost count of the number of times I heard the line “sunshine is the best disinfectant” used to justify the effort. As it turns out, it was a slight misquote all along: the actual line,…
Canada’s IFRS Accounting Standards Discussion Group recently discussed the following only-in-Trump-World scenario: …the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on February 20, 2026, that the U.S. International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not provide the executive branch of government with the authority to impose tariffs. The ruling invalidated tariffs U.S. President Donald Trump imposed in April…
A new IASB Chair is announced! His name is Sam Woods, and here’s the bio: Mr. Woods is a recognized leader in international financial regulation, having previously served as Deputy Governor of the Bank of England and Chief Executive Officer of the UK Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). He succeeds Andreas Barckow, whose term as IASB…
Let’s check in again on the fast-moving KPMG Australia scandal, as handily summed up here: The KPMG Australia scandal began with a whistleblower’s 2024 allegations that senior partners misused confidential Lendlease board documents to gain an unfair edge in winning major audit mandates, including Westpac. The story exploded into the open in 2026 after parliamentary…
The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) recently published a consultation paper “seeking stakeholder input on potential ways to modernize securities legislation for public companies,” open for a 120-day comment period. Here’s how it sets out one item relevant to the subject matter of this blog. A reminder that in Canada, “venture issuers” generally refers to smaller public…
I came across a Substack page maintained by The IFRS Accountant… Do I mean an IFRS Accountant, you ask? Well no, in the sense that the author of the blog (who appears to be British) refers to themselves in the third person as such, otherwise maintaining anonymity other than to tell us: “After 35+ years…
Let’s return to the IFRS 18 concept of management-defined performance measures. You’ll recall that the new standard defines such a measure as ‘a subtotal of income and expenses that an entity uses in public communications outside financial statements; to communicate to users of financial statements management’s view of an aspect of the financial performance of…
