The Big Four firms ask employees and partners to disclose this year's crypto investments.

The Big Four firms - Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG - have asked their executives and partners to disclose cryptocurrency investments made by them or their family members during the year.

Deloitte and PwC partners have to disclose investments as small as Rs.10. The firms fear conflict of interest if partners or their family members hold digital currencies.

As part of the annual risk-assessment process, the Big Four firms have also sought details of investments in non-fungible tokens (NFT) or other crypto assets.

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger. NFTs use a digital ledger to provide a public certificate of authenticity or proof of ownership, but do not restrict the sharing or copying of the underlying digital files. The lack of interchangeability (fungibility) distinguishes NFTs from blockchain cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are the most prominent uses of blockchain technology, and they are examples of fungible tokens.

Please note that bitcoins crypto assets may be considered as fungible..

Execs could face fine or be sacked if they fail to make disclosures.

Many of the Big Four projects involve directly working with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the government. And they want to be above board.

The focus is mainly on the partners of the Big Four firms. There are about 1,600 partners in the Big Four firms who head service functions like consultancy, taxation or audit.

In the Big Four, the compliance department is tasked with verifying whether partners are making full disclosures.    

Has the Proposed Chartered Accountancy Bill Rubbed us the Wrong Way?

Has the Proposed Chartered Accountancy Bill Rubbed us the Wrong Way?

It seems our community (read - Chartered Accountants) feels that the three non-members (read - non CAs), supposed to have shallow knowledge of audit and assurance, cannot deliver fair judgement in the proposed Disciplinary Committee of ICAI. 

This alters the power equation in favour of the three non-members in the committee which oversees complaints and enquiries pertaining to misconduct of members. 

Our community interprets the move as another attempt by the government to assert control over us after the creation of the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) in 2018.

The Bill proposes inclusion of two CAs and three non-CAs (government nominees) in the Disciplinary Committee from two non-CA nominees and three members.

It proposes to have a non-member as the presiding officer of the Disciplinary Committee. It seems this has annoyed our community a lot as the President of ICAI holds considerable influence over the committee's decisions.

The proposals have come after allegations that ICAI Disciplinary Committee has gone very slow and yet to take any tough decision.

The move will not affect the Big Four but small and medium audit firms have to be careful.

ICAI's powers to influence decisions of the Disciplinary Committee will be mostly diminished. 

Our community feels that the government wants to assert control as in NFRA.

It also feels that the approach in most fraud cases has been to go only after the auditors.

It seems the government is about to take away ICAI's powers and see to it that the President as well as ICAI can no more influence the decisions of the Disciplinary Committee.

There is a general inclination against self regulation in our community. The proposed Bill is an attempt by the government to act in an independent way and reduce ICAI's power and influence over the profession.

The main concern in our community is that non-members do not understand our profession, its practicalities and intricacies. If the proposed changes happen there would be an independent and unbiased view in several aspects. 

Over time auditing has become highly technical and specialised. The scope of audit is quite clearly defined through multiple standards. The proposed changes may result in more decisions based on individual judgement than those driven by the governing standards.

Conclusion

The government has proposed the suggested changes after frequent allegations that ICAI Disciplinary Committee had been very slow and too lethargic. It has never taken tough disciplinary actions against the members and particularly the respective audit firms. The cases dragged on for years together. 

I can give numerous examples of violations that have taken place in our community over the last three decades with nothing ever happening to the culprits. The members or the audit firm. I leave that discussion for another occasion.  

What is Your Insecurity

 #supriowrites #beingindian

What is Your Insecurity

Background - This is in response to a post where I have put my views on the writer's page. But for the benefit of my readers I would like to post it on my page here.

This is what she said.

1. She speaks Bengali fluently. Proud to be born in Kolkata.

2. Moved to the USA from Malaysia when she was 9 and since settled there.

3. Encourages speaking in our Indian mother tongue.

4. Tells us to be proud from where we've come. Incredible India.

5. Hashtags #Indianheritage #Bengali

6. Living in USA for the last 20 years.

What I say

There are a lot of Indians, Bengalis settled in USA who will never come back here. I have a lot of close relatives who fall in this category. Well educated. Well placed in the American society. Period.

But I see occasionally, once in a while, they talk of India, being a 100% Bengali, Durga Puja, Bhai phota, nationalism, and things like that. Trying to make us believe kya farak padta hai?

The thing is if you feel you're an Indian, a Bong as much as we are. So be it. No big deal. Why do you need to write about that again and again? What is your insecurity in USA?

My post on 22-08-2021 on LInkedIN re: The Big Four

 This is what CA Neeraj Arora posted yesterday on LinkedIN.

 It is the dream of many CA students to work in big firms and top firms.

Big4s have more than 3 LAKHS EMPLOYEES IN INDIA and more than 11 LAKH EMPLOYEES IN THE WORLD.

 67% of the listed companies in India are being audited by the Big4s.

99.4% of the listed companies in the world, which means 497/500 companies of S&P 500 are being audited by the Big4s.

Financials of companies like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Reliance, TATA, Aditya Birla Group, HDFC are audited by Big4s.

Have you ever wondered how life in Big4s & Top Corporates is?

In the latest video of Neeraj Arora YouTube channel, Archit Agarwal has discussed the same.

Through this video, you will also get to know why you should start your career from a big firm or top firm?

To know the complete details check out the video now.

Link to the video is in the first comment.

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This is what have I posted. I post this here for the benefit of the readers.  

 #supriowrites #bigfour #pwc #deloitte #ey #kpmg

Neeraj Arora You're wrong. The dream is to become a successful CA. And to reach that destination become a successful student. End of the story.

The Big Four global statistics you have collected from Google doesn't add any value to the journey of kaamyaabi to anybody. You've given free publicity to the Big Four which they don't deserve.

I'm a writer. I write case studies. For a long long time. Always remembering them for the wrong reasons. Read my last article where I've written about the sweeping changes the UK government has made to wipe out the dominance of the Big Four. They have scrapped the audit regulator Financial Reporting Council (FRC) which will be replaced by a new audit regulator Audit Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA) in 2023.

Things Chartered Accountants in India should take note of.

You need to read a lot before writing all this. Read about what the Big Four has done in UK, USA, China, Germany. You'll get the long list of all the countries where PwC has cases against them. Check Wikipedia. There are thirty one cases involving PwC across the globe in countries like US, Japan, India, Russia, UK, Ireland, Luxembourg, Brazil, Australia, Italy, Spain, Ukraine and Angola. But this list may not be exhaustive. These cases will be written about and discussed later. 

And then get back. We will tally with all that I've written.

Neeraj Arora You have deleted what I have written as you didn't like to hear the truth. But I would like my readers to read it here. 

 

PwC is under Probe in the Religare Fraud - Introduction

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is in the news again for the wrong reasons. PwC is under probe in a multi-crore loan fraud involving Malvinder Singh, former CEO and Chairman, Ranbaxy Laboratories and Shivinder Singh, ex-Vice Chairman, Fortis Healthcare and both one-time promoters of Religare Enterprises. Please read the entire write-up in the next article.

Over the last couple of years I have written on a number of cases involving PwC. Here I wanted to give the checklist for the benefit of readers. Please refer to my earlier articles. 

1. Kerala government bars PricewaterhouseCoopers for two years - December 2020

2. Sebi, MCA probing PwC's resignation as auditor of Reliance Capital and Reliance Home Finance - June 2019

3. PwC Resignation as Auditor of Reliance Capital and Reliance Home Finance Comes Under SEBI and Government Scanner - June 2019

4. SEBI, MCA probe PwC's resignation as auditor of Reliance Capital and Reliance Home Finance; ask stock exchanges to collect necessary information - June 2019

5. Delhi Court Summons PwC India's Chairman Shyamal Mukherjee and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Nandini Chatterjee in a Defamation Case filed by Sarvesh Mathur, former CFO of PwC - September 2019