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Maintaining our reputation for excellence (2 of 4)
Measurement in Financial Reporting
Published in October, Measurement in Financial Reporting typifies the approach we have taken throughout our Information for Better Markets campaign. The report considers the five types of measurement used in financial reporting, examines the viability of these approaches in relation to different entities and argues that standard-setters should be subject to the same principles of good regulation as government – including a significantly more evidence-based approach to measurement than has historically been the case.
Robert Hodgkinson, Executive Director, Technical Strategy is convinced that this is the way forward:
‘Our Information for Better Markets campaign has achieved a real point of distinction by resisting polemic in favour of an analytical view of the policy choices. This is not a quest for truth. We are asking people to think about various approaches which might be appropriate for different circumstances as well as the consequences of adopting them.’
Engaging with the corporate responsibility debate
Corporate responsibility is a core part of our obligations under our Charter and the Institute has been engaged with the corporate responsibility debate long before it became fashionable. In 2006, in response to the growing interest in this area, we recruited a specialist team of staff and volunteers who are now developing our work, in particular looking at how individuals, society and governments can direct market activity towards more sustainable and responsible outcomes. In parallel with this thought leadership activity, Institute staff participate in a wide range of activities aimed at helping the wider community, from supporting the Institute’s staff-nominated charities – NSPCC and NCH the children’s charity, to reading and numeracy classes with a local primary school in Hackney.
Audit quality
The Audit Quality Forum, established in 2005 in order to provide a platform on which regulators, investors, business and the profession could come together and debate issues around audit quality and financial reporting, went from strength to strength in 2006.
Endorsed by the Department of Trade and Industry as a body which exists to ‘encourage stakeholders to work together by promoting open and constructive dialogue in order to contribute to the work of government and regulators’ the Forum fulfils an important need.
Take for example Making Global Auditing Standards Local, published in November as part of our Fundamentals series. The research addresses the tension between the requirement for a set of International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) and the need for these standards to cater for local cultures and institutions. Drawing on the UK experience of the adoption of ISAs it identifies what can be learnt from this experience as well as avenues of further research.
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