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In a series of meetings and panel discussions, ACCA is raising awareness of how adoption of sustainability disclosures is driving investment in sustainable businesses

Global ccountancy body ACCA is pushing for adoption of sustainability reporting standards at this year’s COP29 in Azerbaijan.

In a series of meetings and panel discussions, ACCA is raising awareness of how adoption of sustainability disclosures is driving investment in sustainable businesses and the net zero transition, and the “urgent need” for this to speed up and become universal.

It is also highlighting the need for more professional skills capacity in sustainability. The skillset of the accountancy profession is broadening to embrace sustainable business, finance and reporting, ACCA says.

At the same time the accountancy body is ensuring that delegates to the UN Climate Conference are aware of the “vital” role that small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) have in ensuring that business moves to Net Zero. 

Vikas Aggarwal, regional head of public affairs for Europe, Eurasia, Middle East and the Americas, ACCA, said: “It’s crucial that SMEs – the backbone of supply chains and economies across the world – aren’t forgotten in the journey to Net Zero. But they face huge challenges, including accessing sustainable finance and a lack of the professional skills needed to adopt sustainable business models.”

Previously, ACCA has led the accountancy profession in taking action on climate change including sharing best practice, creating knowledge hubs, and building world-leading education and learning opportunities and providing guidance and toolkits on sustainability reporting. 

At COP16, the UN Biodiversity Conference which took place earlier in November, ACCA launched the “Empowering business: navigating nature-related reporting” report, calling on accountants to understand the concepts, principles, challenges and opportunities of nature-related reporting.

Now, as COP29 opened, ACCA published the “Weathering the storm: building resilience against climate disruptions” report which outlined how “unprepared” businesses are for climate-related disasters.

Aggarwal added: “Financial professionals are in no doubt that huge investment is needed in clean energy and sustainable business. Part of ACCA’s role is to explain and amplify that message to business and government.

“That is why we were so pleased to be part of the discussion at COP29 Azerbaijan set up by the Global Capacity Building Coalition of which ACCA is a supporter member.

Over the week it has been highlighted how resilience will be key, as explored in our new report, Weathering the storm. A focus on skills development is crucial; we’ll continue to work urgently to play our part because the critical need is to take action.”

Article apperad in Accountancy Today

The business, which was formerly known as Smith and Williamson, decided to consolidate its brands under a new name back in June of 2022

Evelyn Partners’ private equity owner reportedly could be looking to split off its accounting arm in a £500m deal, according to The Sunday Times.

The outlet revealed that Permira is considering making the move as investor interest in professional service firms continues to grow and has appointed investment bank Evercore to lead the sales process.

The business, which was formerly known as Smith and Williamson, decided to consolidate its brands under a new name back in June of 2022.

It now employs over 4,000 members of staff and most recently revealed that its adjusted EBITDA rose 18.3% to £103.9m for the six months ended 30 June 2024.

Alongside this, the company’s assets under management (AUM) hit a record £62.2bn, up 13.3% year-on-year and 5.2% since 31 December 2023.

The firm’s operating income increased 10.3% to £360.8m, up from £327.2m in the same period last year.

This included a 23.4% growth in professional services operating income which the company put down to continued strong organic growth alongside the contribution of acquisitions made last year.

Evelyn Partners declined to comment on reports.

Accountancy Today

“There are indications that audit quality is being challenged by changing market conditions with an unprecedented movement of complex audits from larger to smaller firms which is requiring those smaller firms to move quickly to upscale their risk and quality processes. Greater visibility of this movement is important so that the Institute can check proactively that firms have the right expertise and experience to take on new larger audits.”

The results were based on nearly 500 audit monitoring visits carried out by ICAEW’s Quality Assurance Department in 2023/24

A total of 71% of audits in 2023/24 were deemed good or generally acceptable, ICAEW has revealed. 

The latest audit monitoring report showed a strong performance by the larger audit firms with 88% of non-Public Interest Entity (PIE) audits carried out by larger firms considered good or generally acceptable. 

Outside of the larger firms, most firms reviewed this year were different to those reviewed last year due to most firms being on a six-year review cycle, which makes year on year comparisons very difficult. 

The results were based on nearly 500 audit monitoring visits carried out by ICAEW’s Quality Assurance Department in 2023/24. Reviewers were asked to select the audits considered to be the most complex and challenging so the overall result is not necessarily representative of average audit quality, which is likely to be higher. 

Rama Krishnan, chair of ICAEW’s Audit Registration Committee, said: “While there has been no deterioration in the overall result this year, it is slightly disappointing that overall performance has not improved. However, we recognise that different firms are reviewed each year which makes it difficult to make year on year comparisons.

“There are indications that audit quality is being challenged by changing market conditions with an unprecedented movement of complex audits from larger to smaller firms which is requiring those smaller firms to move quickly to upscale their risk and quality processes. Greater visibility of this movement is important so that the Institute can check proactively that firms have the right expertise and experience to take on new larger audits.”

Krishnan concluded: “That is why the Committee fully supports the proposal by the ICAEW Regulatory Board to change the Audit Regulations to require firms to report the acceptance of new audits falling within certain criteria.”

Accountancy Today