The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) will be working together with key government bodies to promote the role of compliance and internal audit in risk management and assurance over governance. This is part of its participation in the Integrity and Compliance Task Force of B20 Indonesia 2022, the focus of which is to overcome the threats of money laundering.
One of the issues of importance to the Integrity and Compliance Task Force is the escalated threat of money laundering/ terrorist financing (ML/TF), especially in the climate of recovery and growth amidst the pandemic. While the digitalisation of finance has brought about many benefits, it has also unwittingly paved the way for a whole new set of avenues to dodge regulations and facilitate criminal activity, allowing the insidious proliferation of money laundering.
This has also shed a new light on the role of accountants, who can potentially become gatekeepers as the first line of defence both in carrying out appropriate due diligence on their potential clients and in relation to the financial system, to prevent illicit funds from finding their way into the economy.
B20-G20 Dialogue: Integrity and Compliance Task Force
Earlier last month, the B20-G20 Dialogue of the Integrity and Compliance Task Force brought together G20 ministers and global stakeholders to develop a mutual understanding and synergy on key policy recommendations to support the key theme and guide discussion during the B20 summit.
In the dialogue, government and public sectors’ roles in policy actions were outlined to execute the recommendations, which includes facilitating integrity in business-to-government interactions, promoting inclusiveness between public-private sector entities to ensure trust, transparency, and high standards of integrity, and extending multi-stakeholder cooperation for
better cybercrime response.
Summarising the dialogue, Mr Haryanto T. Budiman, Chairman of the B20 Task Force, mentioned that there is a strong need for collaborative efforts between government organisations and businesses to achieve a better future in integrity and compliance. He also added that there will be several significant initiatives following, to promote their key priorities.
ICAEW’s Role and Focus on Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
In line with the task force’s efforts, ICAEW will be hosting a conference themed “Fostering Agility to Combat Money Laundering and Economic Crime”, which will assemble key stakeholders from relevant sectors including the governments. Together, they will map out recommendations and priorities to equip stakeholders with key insights while re-educating them
with fresh and current perspectives on remediation actions.
At the conference which will be held in Indonesia on 28 September, a training film on the subject of AML produced by ICAEW titled All Too Familiar will be screened. Thereafter, a panel discussion will take place with various business leaders including experts from both ICAEW and Indonesia, who will share AML study cases and insights.
Following the event, an official AML report will be officially released, which will be co-authored by ICAEW.
“We are hopeful that this report can help to provide sound guidelines and recommendations for organisations and government bodies when it comes to tackling money laundering,” said Angela Foyle, Chair of the Anti-Money Laundering Subcommittee of ICAEW.
