Strengthening the quality of corporate reporting and its enforcement

ICAS (‘The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland’) welcomes the opportunity to respond to the European Commission’s Call for Evidence on its ‘Corporate reporting – improving its quality and enforcement’ initiative. ICAS is pleased to note the EC is undertaking a holistic review that is looking at the three pillars of corporate reporting: corporate governance, statutory audit, and their supervision.

Call for evidence for an impact assessment Mazars Ireland EC Consultation on Corporate reporting 04/02/2022 Auditors play a cornerstone role of public interest for the benefit of economy and society: they reduce information asymmetries and build stakeholders’ confidence, fueling the transition towards a prosperous and sustainable EU economy.

IFAC welcomes the European Commission’s efforts to strengthen the quality of corporate reporting and its enforcement—taking an appropriate view of the entire ecosystem that contributes to high quality, decision-useful information for investors and other stakeholders.

>>Challenges: GISAD welcomes the initiative to improve the quality of corporate reporting. GISAD has already comment-ed on https://gisad.eu/eu-initiative-nachhaltige-unternehmensfuehrung/ and https://gisad.eu/de-eu-initiative-ein-moderner-eu-rahmen-fuer-die-unternehmensbesteuerung/ in this context. In the context of digitalisation, business models are becoming increasingly complex and opaque to inves-tors.

The corporate reporting ecosystem Revisorforeningen - the Norwegian Institute of Public Accountants – fully support a review of the whole ecosystem supporting high quality corporate reporting by public interest entities.

FAR, the institute for the accountancy profession in Sweden, welcomes the EC’s initiative to strengthen the three pillars of corporate reporting (corporate governance, statutory audit and supervision) and believes the key to a successful change is to involve all stakeholders. We acknowledge that corporate failures have occurred in the past, and that they most likely will occur in the future.

The European Contact Group (ECG), which brings together the six large professional services networks in Europe (BDO, Deloitte, EY, Grant Thornton, KPMG and PwC) welcomes the opportunity to respond to the call for evidence of the European Commission for the initiative on ‘Corporate reporting - improving its quality and enforcement’.

We support the EC in looking at the entire corporate reporting ecosystem. We acknowledge the EC’s stance that – if any – “smarter” as opposed to “heavier” regulation makes sense. Better harmonization (e.g., regarding mandatory auditor rotation at 10 years or allowed non-audit services (NAS) and their definition) will bring efficiencies for EU companies and auditors with EU-wide activities.

Subject: response to call for evidence ‘Corporate reporting - improving its quality and enforcement PricewaterhouseCoopers International Ltd (PwC), on behalf of the PwC network, welcomes the opportunity to respond to the public consultation and call for evidence ‘Strengthening the quality of corporate reporting and its enforcement’.

Auditors play a cornerstone role of public interest for the benefit of economy and society: they reduce information asymmetries and build stakeholders’ confidence, fueling the transition towards a prosperous and sustainable EU economy. Auditors are facing increasing demands on quality and scope (ESG), but at the same time their number is shrinking in the EU PIE market.

We welcome the initiative of asking for feedback and comments on the improvement of the quality and compliance of corporate reporting, for the sake of transparency. An increase in disclosure will not only benefit the existing shareholders of a company, but also entice potential investors to compare and contrast corporate sustainability data in order to make an informed decision.

The Austrian Federal Economic Chamber is the legal representative of all persons and other legal entities operating independently in Austria in the field of trade, crafts, industry, mining, commerce, money, credit and insurance, transport, news, broadcasting, tourism and leisure activities and other services.

Filed in German · English published by the European Commission

For 20 years, the Austrian Corporate Governance Working Group has provided a regulatory framework for the management and supervision of listed companies with the Austrian Corporate Governance Code. It contains both internationally accepted standards of good governance and important national legal provisions.

Filed in German · English published by the European Commission

We would like to mention 2 practical problems with the Audit reform/Regulation. 1. The non-harmonization of national rules for rotation – there are different rules in different EU states which make practical difficulties for multinational firms (groups). 2. The non-harmonization of EU Audit Regulation rules for tendering auditor and EU and national rules for public procurement.

Audit quality is the cornerstone to building trust amongst investors and other stakeholders, ensuring efficient allocation of capital and contributing to the development of a sustainable and prosperous economy in the EU. Statutory auditors work for the public interest and play a critical role in setting confidence by attesting corporate reporting on financial and sustainability information.

ACCA strongly supports the EC approach to consider the three pillars of high quality and reliable corporate reporting as part of the wider financial reporting ecosystem and commend the EC’s multi-stakeholder approach. Improvements on corporate governance, statutory audit and supervision should take place in a coordinated way so that all three can be mutually reinforcing towards improved quality. Corporate reporting.

The Austrian Chamber of Tax Advisors and Public Accountants (KSW) agrees with Commissioner McGuinness’ approach to strengthen the three pillars of corporate reporting (‘ecosystem of corporate reporting’), and welcome the holistic approach incorporating clear corporate governance requirements, high quality audit and coherent regulation including supervision.

Filed in German · English published by the European Commission

THE LANGUAGE OF MY FEEDBACK IS GERMAN! We are the legally recognised joint platform of the Austrian audit associations in the cooperative society. The audit associations, together with their around 280 auditors (auditors and auditors), organise the audit for their members primarily from the cooperative sector and thus for an important part of the Austrian economy (including, for example, around 2/3 of all Austrian…

Filed in German · English published by the European Commission

The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) is pleased to respond to the European Commission Legislative Initiative for Corporate reporting – improving its quality and enforcement. GLEIF will focus its comments on the use of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) in the consultation.

Accountancy Europe commends the European Commission (EC) for this initiative and for adopting a holistic approach to the 3 pillars of corporate reporting: corporate governance & reporting, statutory audit, and their supervision. Our profession is open-minded to change and ready to contribute to the EC’s efforts to enhance the corporate reporting ecosystem.