This month’s update from the ICAEW Professional Standards Department includes guidance on how to stay compliant when referring clients to financial advisers, how to make the most of compliance reviews and recent trends in ethics complaints received by ICAEW. Also included are updates for firms working in the regulated areas of audit, insolvency and AML and news of our recent triple win at the Association Excellence Awards for our latest training film, All Too Familiar. 

Apply to serve on a regulatory or disciplinary committee
We are recruiting for various roles across our regulatory and disciplinary committees. All significant decisions on regulatory and conduct matters are made by ICAEW regulatory and disciplinary committees. These committees operate independently from ICAEW staff and comprise a parity of lay and chartered accountants with a lay chair who has a casting vote. Find out more about the expertise we are looking for, remuneration rates for accountant and lay members and how to apply.

ICAEW Regulatory Board (IRB) – vacancy for an ICAEW member
The IRB is looking to appoint an ICAEW chartered accountant member (non lay) to join the IRB. From 1 January 2023, all IRB members will be eligible to receive a fee of £385 per meeting, with pro rata payments for other commitments. Expenses are reimbursed in line with ICAEW policy.

Referrals to financial advisers: staying compliant
When accountancy firms refer clients to financial advisers, they need to consider a range of regulatory and ethical issues. We look at the difference between independent and restricted advisers, and discuss how you can ensure you stay compliant with ICAEW’s Code of Ethics and legal requirements.

Calling out unprofessional behaviour
ICAEW’s Code of Ethics outlines the standards of behaviour expected of chartered accountants. We look at recent trends in ethics complaints received by ICAEW, and ask what firms and individuals can do to prevent and report problems. The Code of Ethics applies to all ICAEW members and ICAEW member firms and requires them to adhere to five fundamental principles: integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality, and professional behaviour.

Compliance reviews: a positive learning experience
Annual compliance reviews help firms and individuals ensure they continue to meet their regulatory obligations. Whether your reviews are mandatory or good practice, experts from ICAEW’s Quality Assurance Department (QAD) offer some advice on how to make the most of the process.

Disciplinary update: October 2022
Take note of the latest disciplinary cases to ensure you or your firm are not making similar mistakes. Since the last update four tribunal orders have been published. Seven consent orders and three fixed penalty orders have also been issued by the Investigation Committee.

Quality Assurance monitoring feedback results
Find out what our firms thought of the monitoring review process in Q3 2022. 

ICAEW training films

Training film wins awards for ICAEW and HMRC
An anti-money laundering educational drama film, produced by ICAEW in collaboration with HMRC, has won three awards at the 2022 Association Excellence Awards.

Know your client
ICAEW’s AML educational drama All Too Familiar is designed to engage staff and support in-house training. We talk to Sophie Parkhouse at Albert Goodman about how she used the film to stimulate discussions around AML culture. She also offers some tips on making the most of the film’s content across different service lines.

Anti-money laundering updates

Does your firm automatically sanction screen clients?
The pace of change and the volume of sanctions imposed in 2022 has increased the risk of ICAEW supervised firms inadvertently enabling sanctions evasion. As part of our work as an anti-money laundering supervisor, we recognised the need to perform monitoring activity to identify and mitigate the risks. The results of the ICAEW Sanctions Thematic Review 2022 indicate firms have increased the intensity and frequency of their existing sanctions screening procedures. Use this review to benchmark your firm’s policies and procedures for screening clients, to assess the level of risk to which your firm may be exposed and to mitigate these risks by implementing the policies and procedures outlined in this review.

Cryptoassets webinar recording: how to spot money laundering red flags 
Our expert panel helps you understand what is meant by cryptoassets, how crypto can be abused by criminals and what the warning signs or risk factors might be. They also discuss case studies and provide the view of a money laundering reporting officer. 

You can also listen again to any of the other webinars presented by our AML supervision team. 

Our role as an anti-money laundering (AML) supervisor

226 AML monitoring reviews were carried out with ICAEW AML supervised firms in Q3 2022. 38.5% were at high or high-medium risk of being used to enable money laundering. Read more about our latest work as the UK’s largest accountancy professional body supervisor for anti-money laundering.

Working in the regulated area of audit: updates

Auditor resignations: your responsibilities
The number of UK companies seeking new auditors has risen sharply in the last couple of years. This has shined a spotlight on the resigning auditors’ responsibilities to issue cessation statements under section 519 of the Companies Act 2006. ICAEW’s Quality Assurance Department would like to remind audit firms of their responsibilities in this area.

Working in the regulated area of insolvency: updates

Process for DLAs written off as part of corporate insolvency procedures
HMRC has designed a new voluntary process to allow a more data driven and targeted approach to the issue of Director’s Loan Accounts (DLAs).
This specifically applies in situations where DLAs are written off as part of a corporate insolvency procedure because the debtor cannot afford to repay the loan to the company.
The process is entirely voluntary, and insolvency practitioners don’t need to use it if they don’t wish to.

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