Our latest insights

As the Real Estate and Construction industry continues to face increasing costs, thin profit margins, heightened scrutiny and regulatory changes, the potential for fraud and corruption is higher than ever. What measures can your business put in place to best stay protected in the face of rising financial crime?

Cyber security is a systemic risk to the prosperity of Australia; the problem is going to get worse before it gets better; it will impact everyone; and everyone has a role to play in addressing the issues.

The Financial Accountability Regime (FAR) Bill 2023 marks a pivotal transformation in financial sector oversight, affecting all APRA regulated financial entities in the banking, insurance and superannuation industries as well as their significant related entities. Jointly administered by ASIC and APRA, the FAR will replace the Banking Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR), aiming to improve risk and governance cultures by imposing a strengthened responsibility and accountability framework for those financial institutions.

CFOs have a pivotal role in preventing and mitigating fraud risks within organisations. They should establish a strong governance framework promoting ethical behaviour, transparency, and accountability. Collaborating with technology leaders, CFOs can implement anti-fraud technology, stress-testing measures, and anti-money laundering controls. Maintaining an ethical culture through awareness, education, and reporting mechanisms is crucial.

This week, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) finalised new requirements to Prudential Standard CPS 511 Remuneration, which will significantly impact authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs), insurers, and superannuation entities. This new standard requires APRA-regulated entities to publish details around their remuneration frameworks, design, governance, and outcomes. These changes come in an effort to create more transparency and improve risk management, in particular in the context of the poorly designed and executed remuneration frameworks exposed through the financial services Royal Commission.

To ensure effective integration and outputs, alongside financial viability of new renewable projects, developers, owners, asset managers, energy retailers and investors need to understand the impacts for new and existing projects caused by grid congestion and supply and demand fluctuations.

APRA-regulated businesses operating in the banking, insurance, and superannuation industries will soon be faced with significant regulatory changes. APRA and the ASIC have commenced early consultation around the introduction of the Financial Accountability Regime, which aims to establish a strong accountability framework to enhance risk management and governance practices in the financial sector.

With environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) and sustainability front of mind for all organisations and reporting requirements on the horizon, it’s important to understand what tax obligations are at play. As the ATO focuses on transparency and governance, it’s important to ensure tax obligations are appropriately incorporated in policies, frameworks, controls, and these are tested to ensure that the business is operating in line with the Group’s tax risk appetite.

We recently sat down with NSW Club leaders to discuss Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations on the Club industry in the short to medium term. The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has now released their standard on Sustainability, and Treasury has sent a draft policy on how the standards will be adopted in Australia. Although there is no set guidance at this stage, it is most likely Clubs will need to adopt this standard in FY26.

June 30 is fast approaching, and with it comes tax scammers, the escalating cost of living means their activity is on the rise, we outline some scams for you to be aware of.

The current cost of living crisis compounded with salaries not keeping up with inflation has created a climate in which the fraud triangle can emerge. Internal Audit programs are a valuable tool that can be used to assess and report this.

With the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act in 2018, Australia became a leading jurisdiction in combating Modern Slavery, which is defined as the exploitation of workers where offenders use coercion, threats or deception to exploit employees, and undermine their freedom. The Act made provisions for a statutory review of the act, which commenced in 2022 and concluded with the release of the Report of the statutory review of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) by the Attorney General's Department on 25 May 2023.