论我国商业银行外部审计制度和模式的创新

西方商业银行外部审计主要由社会民间审计组织承担,其审计模式大致经历了账项基础审计、制度基础审计和风险导向审计三个发展阶段.目前我国商业银行审计正处于账项基础审计向制度基础审计和风险基础审计过渡的混合阶段.入世及国有商业银行即将改制上市等金融环境的变迁,要求创造公平、有序的市场竞争环境,并防范金融风险.因此,充分发挥商业银行审计的作用无疑迫切而重要.本文在借鉴西方商业银行审计制度和模式的基础上,分析了我国商业银行审计制度和模式的现状,并对其发展和创新进行了探讨,提出了修改商业银行法的有关条款及重新界定有关审计目标等意见和建议.     

Where were the auditors? Using AAERs in introductory or advanced auditing courses

I provide instructions for use of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Release (AAER) assignment by instructors in Introductory or Advanced Audit Courses. The assignment gives students an opportunity to use the knowledge they have gained from their auditing and other accounting courses. Students analyze what was done by individuals in a company to cause the SEC to issue an AAER and what the external auditors could have done to prevent the AAER from happening. A secondary feature of the assignment is that students are able to practice their presentation skills by presenting their analysis to their class members and instructor. The assignment can also lead to class discussion on ethics and what ethical dilemmas practicing auditors are faced with.     

AUDITOR LIABILITY: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DEBATE

The auditing industry claims to be an unfair victim of lawsuits and has deployed its considerable economic and political muscle in a campaign to secure further liability concessions. Amongst other things, it seeks to replace “joint and several liability” of partnerships with “full proportional liability”, a “cap” on auditor liability and a statutory right to negotiate liability limits with company directors. This paper challenges the evidence and the arguments advanced by the UK auditing industry. It argues that there is little convincing argument to support that industry's claims. On the contrary, ordinary stakeholders are relatively powerless to take action against negligent auditors. It is noted that most of the major lawsuits are by one accountancy firm against another. The UK auditing industry already enjoys considerable privileges, such as incorporation and “contributory negligence”, a form of modified proportional liability. Despite these privileges, the industry has shunned public accountability. It is holding the UK public to ransom by threats of locating its operations in offshore islands. Scholars are urged to develop alternative public policy options and analysis.     

财政科技创新项目绩效审计评价指标设计及应用

财政项目支出绩效审计是政府绩效审计的重要内容,如何构建合理的绩效审计评价指标并运用科学的评价方法是获得客观的审计结论的重要前提。本文分析了绩效审计评价指标体系的构建原则,在此基础上构建了一项财政科技创新项目的绩效审计评价指标,并采用层次分析法和模糊综合评价法对该项目进行绩效审计评价,将定性评价的指标演算为量化的评价结论。最后,在结论部分,对模糊层次分析法在绩效审计评价中的运用进行了总结。     

风险导向审计：机理与运用

在审计发展的历史进程中,一直存在两种观念导向：效率导向与风险导向。在不同历史发展时期,由于审计的有效需求、企业经济业务复杂程度以及法律风险水平等因素的不同,审计对两种观念导向的追求不同,并体现在审计方法与审计战略中。风险导向审计从根本上说是一种审计观念导向与审计战略定位,而不是一种审计方法。本文在模拟审计历史演变的基础上,探讨了风险导向审计的存在基础、机理以及应用问题,试图提供认识风险导向审计本质的新视角,加深对其机理与功能的理解,促进风险导向审计在我国的正确运用。     

中注协约谈部分证券资格事务所负责人及注册会计师 提示上市公司年报审计风险

为深入贯彻落实会计师事务所执业质量检查制度改革精神和《上市公司年报审计监管工作规程》要求,中注协在系统总结2010年年报审计监管约谈经验的基础上,通过创新约谈工作思路、健全约谈工作机制、加强约谈工作技术支持力量,进一步加大年报审计事前事中监管力度,有效抵制不正当低价竞争,更好地引导和帮助事务所防范审计风险。2012年,中注协先后约谈了9次(其中,当面约谈6次,书面约谈3次)、共20家证券资格事务所,就部分上市公司2011年年报审计风险进行提示,引起社会各界的高度关注和积极反响。为帮助广大读者深入了解中注协年报审计监管约谈机制和全面把握风险提示内涵,现接上期,继续将有关约谈的情况予以刊发。     

IMPLEMENTING ECONOMIC CAPITAL IN AN INDUSTRIAL COMPANY: THE CASE OF MICHELIN

Economic capital (also referred to as "risk capital" or "risk-based capital") is the amount of capital, generally in the form of equity or equity equivalents, that is necessary to provide an adequate cushion against lower-than-expected operating results. Over the last two decades, the concept has taken root among banks, particularly in determining the amount of capital needed to protect against financial distress in the event of unexpectedly large credit losses.
Michelin is in the vanguard of industrial companies that are beginning to apply economic capital concepts. The company uses an option-pricing approach that effectively allows the market to identify the level of economic capital that is expected to maximize corporate value. Michelin has also begun the process of attributing economic capital to individual business units and activities. By so doing, the company is able to use a single, company-wide hurdle rate for all projects and business units. Thus, instead of raising the discount rate when evaluating riskier projects and businesses, management assigns them larger amounts of economic capital (and, hence, a higher charge for use of that capital).
The use of economic capital to evaluate ongoing activities and contemplated investments makes it more likely that decisions will translate into increased shareholder value. A case in point is outsourcing. As illustrated in an example analyzing the company's decision to sell but continue sourcing from a textile factory, outsourcing decisions typically reduce a firm's required amount of economic capital—and thus an analysis based on the use of economic capital provides a more realistic picture of the expected value added from such transactions.     

A Rejoinder to Commentaries on ‘Integrated Reporting: A Review of Developments and their Implications for the Accounting Curriculum’

This auditing case study focuses on a company presenting significant audit risk for an incoming audit firm. By presenting a variety of audit risks, hence audit implications, the case demonstrates the holistic approach to audit required in order to avoid an inappropriate audit opinion. The case is aimed at undergraduate students of auditing in the final year of their studies and students of the ACCA Paper 6 or equivalent. The case provides an efficient and original vehicle for instruction in auditing and can be used to complement other teaching aids.     

Model-based auditing using REA

The recent financial crisis has renewed interest in the value of the owner-ordered auditing tradition that starts from society's long-term interest rather than management interest. This tradition uses a model-based auditing approach in which control requirements are derived in a principled way. A problem with this approach is that it has been proven hard to apply it in modern complex organizations. Making it feasible requires at least an adequate enterprise modeling approach. In this paper, it is shown that the REA ontology fulfills most of the requirements for such a model-based approach. The analysis also suggests some directions in which REA can be extended.     

LITIGATION RISK FOR AUDITORS AND THE RISK SOCIETY

The auditing industry has mounted a global campaign to reduce its liability. In Canada, it is attempting to change from a doctrine of joint and several liability to proportionate liability, to have the Federal government legislate a statutory cap on liability, or to have the Provincial governments approve the establishment of Limited Liability Partnerships. These initiatives are consistent with the proposals of the CPA firms in the US and the CA firms in the UK. This cross-national trend suggests that a global theory of society is needed to analyze the consequences of audit risk. This paper uses the “risk society” model proposed by Beck to understand why the audit industry focuses on reducing exposure to liability, rather than on improving the quality of audits. Beck's theory of “reflexive modernization” provides an analysis of the so-called “liability crisis” that attempts to overcome the institutional construction offered by the auditing industry. The paper recognizes that it is very difficult for observers outside of the large auditing firms to judge the real risks of audits and to develop alternative public policy options. Ideally, we should be able to evaluate litigation in a modern audit environment. However, the audit firms are not required to disclose sufficient information about their costs to determine the real impact. Meanwhile, professional groups are lobbying hard for changes that will reduce auditors risk without addressing the root causes of audit failures.     

Audit mode change,corporate governance and audit effort

This study investigates changes in audit strategy in China following the introduction of risk-based auditing standards rather than an internal control-based aud...     

PROFESSIONAL SOCIALISATION, COMMERCIAL PRESSURES AND JUNIOR STAFF'S TIME-PRESSURED IRREGULAR AUDITING—A CONTEXTUAL INTERPRETATION

Research suggests a correlation between commercial concerns, time pressures and junior staff's ‘irregular auditing’ that results in audit failures. This article examines junior staff's irregular auditing in the context of trainees' normal auditing responsibilities and the specific nature of time pressures at their firms. The discussion recognises that omnipresent commercial concerns often leads to adoption of new audit methods that may militate against time pressures. Empirical evidence from in-depth interviews is used to highlight that firms that use risk-based auditing expect their trainees to help realise commercial gains by focusing audit work on areas where material misstatements could occur. The evidence shows that trainees do concentrate work on areas where material misstatements could occur. Acts that reduce audit quality occur in other areas and may often be seen by senior staff who may sanction extra work, if necessary. The article uses these findings to infer that junior staff do not have low regard for audit protocol.     

Should a financial service provider care about trust? An empirical study of retail saving and investment allocations

Motivated by evidence of low trust for financial service providers, this study turns to scholarship on trust, which suggests that trust influences individuals' risk-taking. The study asks whether a financial service provider that is highly trusted, and with saving propositions across the risk continuum, has more success with risk-based savings than risk-free savings compared to an industry average, or overall situation? A number of theoretical expectations are empirically confirmed. Findings indicate that a provider not perceived as highly trusted may have difficulty selling risk-based products. Secondly, trust appears to be a form of competitive advantage in that it encourages more assets in risk-based products on which higher fees are earned. This highlights the importance of qualitative factors both in profitability and as unique selling points, and suggests possible strategic pathways for managers when allocating scarce resources to build firm strengths.     

Intersections of law and accountancy: Unlimited auditor liability in the United Kingdom

In recent years, considerable pressure has grown within the British auditing industry for limitation of liability arising from negligent mis-statements in audit reports. Under British company law, auditors are forbidden from contracting with companies for their liability to be restricted. This legal provision was introduced in the Companies Act 1929 as a byproduct of legislation relating to directors' liability. The paper explores the background to this legal provision, observing that auditor liability cannot be viewed as a self-contained matter of interest only to a limited community. Attitudes to auditor liability have been shaped against a background of changes in the law of negligence, some, but by no means all, arising from cases involving auditors. Moreover, changing concepts of the position of the auditor within corporate governance structures have at different times encouraged and discouraged the assimilation of the legal treatments of auditors and directors. These concepts themselves reflect differing notions of what actually constitutes the “company”: a collectivity of shareholders or a separate entity controlled by directors. These notions emerged against a background of corporate failure and the need to allocate losses among various parties with different degrees of culpability for failure. However, legal developments do not account by themselves for changing attitudes within the auditing industry towards unlimited liability; acceptance of full responsibility for one's statements, adopted as a badge of professional status, has more recently been seen as inhibiting the commercial development of British auditing.     

Applying robotic process automation (RPA) in auditing: A framework

Robotic process automation (RPA) has been widely adopted in many industries, including the accounting industry, to automate well-defined and repetitive tasks; however, its application to auditing has lagged behind because of the unique nature of this industry. This study applies RPA in the auditing area. An RPA framework is proposed that frees auditors from doing repetitive and low-judgment audit tasks and enables them to focus on tasks that require professional judgment. This paper also demonstrates the feasibility of RPA by implementing a pilot project that applies RPA to the confirmation process.     

Feasible fraud and auditing probabilities for insurance companies and policyholders

Insurance claims fraud is counted among the major concerns in the insurance industry, the reason being that excess payments due to fraudulent claims account for a large percentage of the total payments each year. We formulate optimization problems from the insurance company as well as the policyholder perspective based on a costly state verification approach. In this setting??while the policyholder observes his losses privately??the insurance company can decide to verify the truthfulness of incoming claims at some cost. We show simulation results illustrating the agreement range which is characterized by all valid fraud and auditing probability combinations both stakeholders are willing to accept. Furthermore, we present the impact of different valid probability combinations on the insurance company??s and the policyholder??s objective quantities and analyze the sensitivity of the agreement range with respect to a relevant input parameter. This contribution summarizes the major findings of a working paper written by Müller et?al. (Working Papers on Risk Management and Insurance (IVW-HSG), No. 92, 2011).     

Cross Guarantees And Negative Pledges: A Preliminary Analysis

Deregulation of Australia's commercial trading environment during the 1980s spawned two major financial instruments for company groups: negative pledge and class order deed of cross guarantee. Both instruments were premised on the pari passu or creditor equality principle. If is informative for the future analysis of those financial instruments to consider their background, their commercial features and interconnections. Also, it is crucial to consider the connection between the old NCSC Class Order Deed of Indemnity and the newer AS C Deed of Cross Guarantee. This article provides preliminary evidence on the incidence of the new deed relative to its predecessor. It also considers the costs and benefits of the Deed of Cross Guarantee, including the illusory nature of the quid pro quo protections provided to creditors in return for allowing "closed-group" companies to gain accounting and auditing relief from statutory reporting requirements.     

A real-world way to manage real options

Each corporate growth project is an option, in the sense that managers face choices--push ahead or pull back--along the way. Yet many companies hesitate to apply options theory to initiatives such as R&D and geographic expansion, partly because these "real" options are highly complex. In this article, the authors make the case that the complexity of real options can be eased through the use of a binomial valuation model. Many of the problems with real-options analysis stem from the use of the Black-Scholes-Merton model, which isn't suited to real options. Binomial models, by contrast, are simpler mathematically, and you can tinker with a binomial model until it closely reflects the project you wish to value. Suppose your company is considering investing in a new plant. To use the binomial model, you must create an "event tree" to figure out the full range of possible values for the plant during the project's lifetime--next year, at the end of the design phase, upon completion. Then you work backward from the value at completion, factoring in the various investments, to determine the value of the project today. These calculations provide you with numbers for all the possible future values of the option at the various points where a decision needs to be made on whether to continue with the project. The authors also address another criticism of real options: that gaps often arise between theoretical and realized values of options of all types. Such gaps may be largely the result of managers exercising options at the wrong time. To improve the way it manages its real options, a company can look out for the decision trigger points that correspond to the nodes on a binomial decision tree. The trigger points should not only tell managers when they need to decide on exercise but also specify rules governing the exercise decisions.     

非审计业务对审计市场绩效的影响——基于会计师事务所业务结构的角度

以审计质量和审计收费作为审计市场绩效的衡量指标,从会计师事务所业务结构角度来考察我国注册会计师行业拓展非审计业务对审计市场所带来的影响。实证检验发现,相对于其他事务所而言,非审计业务规模越大和当年非审计业务规模较上年扩大的事务所,其审计质量越好,审计收费也越高。这说明在目前审计服务市场容量有限,竞争过于激烈的环境下,拓展非审计业务有利于增强审计独立性和提高审计收费,是改善行业执业环境的一个重要途径。     

The antecedents of the use of continuous auditing in the internal auditing context

The concept of continuous auditing originated over two decades ago. Yet despite its much touted benefits, its acceptance and use in practice has been slow. To gain insight into the state of affairs, we surveyed 210 internal auditors worldwide on the status of their use of continuous auditing. Using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) we explore the antecedents of internal auditors' intentions to use continuous auditing technology. Employing the Partial Least Squares method, we find strong support for the model with an R² of 44.3%. Specifically, we find that internal auditors' perceptions of effort expectancy and social influence are significant predictors of their intentions to use continuous auditing. We also find that annual sales volume of the company and voluntariness of use significantly moderate the relationship between performance expectancy and social influence respectively. Additionally, we find regional differences in the significance of key UTAUT antecedents. Specifically, we find that the North American internal auditors are more likely to use continuous auditing due to soft social coercion pressures of Social Influence through peers and higher authorities. On the other hand, Middle Eastern auditors are more likely to use the technology if it is mandated by the higher authorities.