New Lessons Need to be Learned From the Financial Crisis, Says ACCA

LONDON, April 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) today publishes a collection of essays from experts in the public and private sectors assessing the role of ethical corporate behaviour in risk management and governance.

The paper, Risk & Reward: Shared Perspectives ( http://www.accaglobal.com/pubs/general/activities/library/governance/cg_ pubs/tech-afb-rarsp2.pdf), features contributions that address how value-based principles can be applied and how they may impact on business performance and the interests of stakeholders.

"In the aftermath of the financial crisis, we have seen a huge focus on structural matters, most obviously the regulation of the banking sector", says report editor John Davies, ACCA's head of technical. "But however business activity is regulated, decisions will always, ultimately, be taken by individuals. As we have seen, this is where the regulatory process can collapse."

"In the context of trying to ensure that material risks are better identified and managed than they have been in the past, this dimension of behavioural risk needs to be recognised as being crucial to the process of risk management, as well as to the wider framework of good governance. The paper aims to stimulate debate in that area."

The paper includes eleven contributions from ACCA, PwC, the Audit Commission, the European Commission, FairPensions and others.

Under discussion are questions about how ethical performance can be measured, how ethical risks can be identified and managed, and the importance of ethical leadership from the top. The paper also points to the need for entities in both the public and the private sectors to operate with a clear sense of values.

"The issue of ethical leadership from the top is a common theme in Shared Perspectives," adds John Davies. "Guidance, standards, and supervision may be put in place to regulate what businesses do, but really whether or not they operate in a way that is in tune with the long-term interests of a business and their stakeholders is down to the behaviour of an entity's lead actors."

Shared Perspectives is a follow up to 2010's Risk & Reward: Tempering the Pursuit of Profit ( http://www.accaglobal.com/general/activities/library/governance/cg_pubs), which explored corporate planning and accountability and the risks that businesses need to identify and manage.

Copies of both reports can be found on ACCA's website:

http://www.accaglobal.com/pubs/general/activities/library/governance/ cg_pubs/tech-afb-rarsp2.pdf

(Due to the length of these URLs, it may be necessary to copy and paste the hyperlinks into your Internet browser's URL address field. Remove the space if one exists.)

Notes to Editors

1) ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is the global body for professional accountants. We aim to offer business-relevant, first-choice qualifications to people of application, ability and ambition around the world who seek a rewarding career in accountancy, finance and management.

2) We support our 140,000 members and 404,000 students in 170 countries, helping them to develop successful careers in accounting and business, with the skills required by employers. We work through a network of over 80 offices and centres and more than 8,000 Approved Employers worldwide, who provide high standards of employee learning and development. Through our public interest remit, we promote appropriate regulation of accounting and conduct relevant research to ensure accountancy continues to grow in reputation and influence.

3) Founded in 1904, ACCA has consistently held unique core values: opportunity, diversity, innovation, integrity and accountability. We believe that accountants bring value to economies in all stages of development and seek to develop capacity in the profession and encourage the adoption of global standards. Our values are aligned to the needs of employers in all sectors and we ensure that through our qualifications, we prepare accountants for business. We seek to open up the profession to people of all backgrounds and remove artificial barriers, innovating our qualifications and delivery to meet the diverse needs of trainee professionals and their employers.

    
    For further information, please contact:
    Laura Strong, ACCA Newsroom
    +44(0)20-7462-8921
    lstrong@ruderfinn.co.uk