Jun 14, 2024
The AFRC has published its report "Roundtable Discussion on Audit Quality and Climate-integrated Audits in Hong Kong" .
As the regulator of the accounting profession in Hong Kong, the AFRC aims to improve the quality of financial reporting and audit in the city. The report summarises three roundtable discussions and three individual interviews with investors, members of audit committees, and auditors of listed companies conducted between December 2023 and February 2024.
The discussions and interviews focused predominantly on their insights on issues in financial reporting and audit quality among the participants. We discussed the challenges posed to audit quality of Hong Kong listed companies by a decade-long stagnation of audit fees and by opportunistic changes of auditors by listed companies. The participants shared their views on the underlying causes of these phenomena and how all three groups of stakeholders can work in concert to safeguard audit quality in Hong Kong.
In addition, they touched on the most recent developments in financial reporting related to climate change and sustainability and discussed the current state of climate-integrated financial reporting and audit in Hong Kong, and the value of independent assurance of companies' sustainability reports.
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Roundtable Discussion on Audit Quality and Climate-integrated Audits in Hong Kong