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Managing risk

Guidance for corporate governance professionals on risk management for boards and the role of the risk committees

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How boards of accounting and finance firms can benefit from shadow boards

  • Helpsheets and support
  • 16 May 2024
  • Corporate Governance Department
Shadow boards can be considered as a tool for navigating a turbulent and ever-changing business landscape. Find out how accountancy businesses can see the same benefits from setting up a shadow board that other sectors are already experiencing.
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Articles & features

Exclusive CORPORATE GOVERNANCE The role of boards in managing risk
  • 15 Apr 2026
  • ICAEW
This session sought to help boards, directors and their advisers to improve their approach to managing risk. The session drew on the Risk Coalition’s latest publication ‘Raising your Game’, which provides cross-sector guidance for boards and their committees with risk oversight responsibility.
Exclusive CORPORATE GOVERNANCE The role of the Board in shaping culture and how to measure success
  • 15 Apr 2026
  • ICAEW
Peter Drucker said that ‘Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast’. The board is responsible for setting both and there is compelling evidence that poor corporate culture plays a significant role in unexpected corporate collapses.
Exclusive CORPORATE GOVERNANCE The role of the Audit Committee and how to be a successful Audit Committee Chair
  • 15 Apr 2026
  • ICAEW
This panel was hosted with the Audit Committee Chairs Independent Forum (ACCIF). ACCIF released a report in 2018 on “How to become an Audit Committee Chair and then succeed” based on over 140 interviews with Audit Committee Chairs, CFOs, Audit Partners and Board Chairs.
What audit committees want directors to understand
  • 10 Mar 2026
  • ICAEW Insights
ICAEW has published a new guide for first-time directors to help them understand what audit committees expect of them. It covers roles and responsibilities, the external audit process and non-financial reporting.
How are boards managing an increasing varied set of risks?
  • 07 Oct 2025
  • ICAEW Insights
Risk management cannot focus on financial resilience alone. For organisations to remain competitive, their board members must take a holistic view. Find out how.
Exclusive CORPORATE GOVERNANCE Breakout 1: Internal controls and risk management frameworks - getting ready for January 2026
  • 06 Jun 2025
  • ICAEW
This article, summarising the session at the 2025 ICAEW Corporate Governance conference, looks at key challenges in preparing for Provision 29 of the 2024 Corporate Governance Code, effective from January 2026.
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Guidance

What audit committees want directors to know
  • Report
  • Mar 2026
  • PDF (2,283kb)
This publication is a response to calls for help for directors – particularly first-time directors – in understanding their broad range of responsibilities for governance, reporting and audit and assurance. In particular, this includes their core responsibilities for the statutory financial statements and the audit.
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE How boards of accounting and finance firms can benefit from shadow boards
  • Helpsheets and support
  • May 2024
Shadow boards can be considered as a tool for navigating a turbulent and ever-changing business landscape. Find out how accountancy businesses can see the same benefits from setting up a shadow board that other sectors are already experiencing.
Developing a meaningful Audit and Assurance Policy
  • Report
  • Jun 2023
  • PDF (7,020kb)
ICAEW recommendations in this report, and the extensive outreach and evidence gathering process on which they are based, suggest that introducing an "Audit and Assurance Policy" could render corporate information more informative: augmenting the understanding, utility and value of audit and assurance activities, enabling them to be driven by the needs and expectations of key users, and making them more accessible in order to facilitate more appropriate resource decisions.
AUDIT AND ASSURANCE FACULTY Sharpening the Focus on Corporate Fraud: an Audit Firm Perspective
  • Report
  • Jul 2022
  • PDF (1,112kb)
A snapshot of the steps being taken by audit firms to better facilitate fraud deterrence and detection.
Well-led review of the Bar Standards Board: findings report
  • Report
  • Nov 2021
  • PDF (246kb)
Well-led review of the Bar Standards Board: findings report
BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT FACULTY How to audit operational resilience
  • Helpsheets and support
  • Feb 2021
In this second paper on operational resilience, we will look at how to develop the audit approach.
Internal controls reporting: sketching out the options
  • Thought leadership report
  • Jun 2020
What might a future framework for reporting on internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) look like? This essay from the Audit and Assurance Faculty examines various reporting frameworks, including COSO and the UK Code, as well as how these fit in with Sir Donald Brydon’s recommendations.
INTERNATIONAL Audit committees in Europe
  • Report
  • Nov 2019
  • PDF (1,368kb)
This report expands our examination to audit committees in a further six EU countries, spread across the centre and south, with various corporate governance traditions and different sized capital markets – namely Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Malta, The Netherlands and Portugal.

CPD Training courses

Stay on top of the rapidly evolving corporate governance landscape and discover how to be a high-performing board director.
Corporate governance courses All CPD courses
Octopus

Webinars and other recordings

Exclusive TECH FACULTY Five questions boards should ask about cyber security
  • Webinar
  • Jun 2020
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued guidance to help boards get to grips with cyber security, perhaps more important now than it has ever been.
Exclusive CORPORATE GOVERNANCE COMMUNITY Leading an effective audit committee
  • Webinar
  • Mar 2018
Angela Crawford-Ingle, Chair of Audit & Risk Committees at Beazley plc, Swinton Insurance and River and Mercantile Group, and Tim Copnell, Founding Chairman of KPMG’s UK Audit Committee Institute, share best practice in leading an effective Audit Committee.
Exclusive CORPORATE GOVERNANCE COMMUNITY Managing social media to avoid reputational damage
  • Webinar
  • Dec 2017
Jennifer Janson, Six Degrees, and Jamie Harley, PwC, discuss the potential impact of social media on reputation and how best to manage this risk and use social media to the benefit of the organisation.
Exclusive CORPORATE GOVERNANCE COMMUNITY Cyber security: an update on what boards need to know
  • Webinar
  • May 2016
Simon Shooter, Head of Cybersecurity and Co-Head of International Commercial Group, Bird & Bird LLP, Kirstin Gillon and Mark Taylor from ICAEW’s IT Faculty provide an overview of the Audit Insights: Cyber Security report.

eBooks

The Library & Information Service provides a collection of eBooks as a benefit of membership. Please note that ICSA publications are only available to ICAEW members and ACA students.  Please log in to access these titles. If you are unable to access an eBook, please see our Help and support or contact library@icaew.com
Exclusive The role of the board in risk management oversight
  • eBook chapter
  • 2016
  • John R.S. Fraser
  • John Wiley & Son
  • Handbook of Board Governance
This title provides comprehensive, expert-led coverage of all aspects of corporate governance for public, nonprofit, and private boards. This chapter looks role of the board in risk management oversight, usually by the audit committee or by establishing a separate risk committee.
Exclusive The board structure and its committees
  • eBook chapter
  • 2017
  • ICSA Publishing
  • ICSA Publishing
  • The ICSA Corporate Governance Handbook
Chapter 3 deals with the structure of the board, its governance role and responsibilities. It also gives brief overviews of the different types of board committees, including: audit; nomination; remuneration; and risk committees. These are dealt with in more detail in later chapters.
Exclusive Technology governance
  • eBook chapter
  • 2024
  • Wiley
  • Handbook of Board Governance
Explores the practical realities of corporate governance in public, private, and not-for-profit environments. Part 3 looks at he governance of technology with particular focus on AI and cyber risk.
Exclusive Risk management
  • eBook chapter
  • 2008
  • Alan Calder
  • Kogan Page
An introduction to governance for directors and executives. Chapter 12 deals with risk management with sections on: risk management and corporate governance; risk assessment; controls; risk management; Basel II; ERM framework; COSO ERM framework.
Terms of use:

You are permitted to access, download, copy, or print out content from eBooks for your own research or study only, subject to the terms of use set by our suppliers and any restrictions imposed by individual publishers. Please see individual supplier pages for full terms of use.

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Useful links

FRC Corporate Governance review 2024
  • Nov 2024
  • Financial Reporting Council
FRC report from November 2024, (see press release) which gauges the quality of reporting against the UK Corporate Governance Code 100 FTSE 350 and Small Cap companies were assessed. Previous editions can also be viewed
UK Corporate Governance Code
  • Jan 2024
  • Financial Reporting Council
Section 4 – Audit, risk and internal control - from the UK Corporate Governance Code 2024 (for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2025)
Section 4 - Audit, risk and internal control - from the UK Corporate Governance Code 2018.
Risk committee - terms of reference
  • Jun 2020
  • ICSA The Governance Institute
ICSA guidance note updated in June 2013 which provides 'model terms of reference for the risk committee of a company and is particularly relevant to banks and other financial institutions (BOFIs).' It 'draws on the experience of company secretaries and is based on best practice as carried out in some of the UK’s largest listed companies.'
Guidance: Raising the bar
  • Dec 2019
  • The Risk Coalition
Principles-based guidance for board risk committees and risk functions in the UK financial services sector from the Risk Coalition.
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