Vulture City - How our bankers got rich on swindles

Westpac is hit with a court case and audit regulation hearings are happening. Tom Ravlic offers some thoughts about why the repeated twaddle about 'did people learn anyting' gets on his nerves.

Submissions talking about auditors and conflicts to the audit regulation inquiry currently underway in Canberra show a great deal of ignorance about the way in which the system works.

Senators in Canberra should ask ASIC all about what it is doing in the area of audit enforcement because inspections are not enough.

new research demonstrates that some people's fear about audit market concentration in the hands of Big Four is nonesense.

Vulture City is now released and there are some people to thank. They are in this podcast. And I make some observations about my career as well because a couple of people have been with me in various ways for a very, very long time.

Anyone engaging in the audit debate needs to get their head around the fact that truth in auditing is non-existent. Don't believe me? Read the auditing standards.

Michael Roddan prompted some thought on audit tenure and public interest. Blame Roddan.

Regular appearances before parliamentary committees ought to be the lot of professional organisations, but will parliamentarians care enough to do it?

ASIC can do a deeper dive into accounting firm compliance with independence rules. It has to in my view, but greater funds and resources need to be provided so this concept can fly otherwise anything that is done will be piecemeal and insufficient.

Tom Ravlic takes issue with the time the government will take to design and implement a new disciplinary regime as implemented by Hayne and takes a quick look at the most current report from the ASIC on enforcement.

the People's Choice Podcast this week is on accountants and ethics as a result of the Twitter poll that I conducted earlier this week. I cover some core ethical principles in the ethical standard and look at where some challenges may emerge during the upcoming inquiry into audit regulation.

Reviews and audits of risk management systems under APRA rules have been in the news but the documents that have been quoted have nothing to do with auditor independence. To ping accounting firms on those issues; well, there are other places to go. Try the accounting world's code of ethics ….

There is a lot of white noise around on auditor independence today and people are banging on about a topic I have spent 25 years building an expertise in. There are two possible solutions to the issue people point to in the NAB-Ernst & Young issue.

Tom Ravlic provides some insight into two instances where he got banned doing his job as a journalist back when he first started writing about the accounting world.

Three inquiries have been announced over the past couple of days. Tom talks about the three and flags some in depth analysis to come on the auditing sector.

ASIC reports that bankers have had to dish out $119.7 million in penance for the sins of their financial advisers and there is more to come ...

What can you expect from professional associations? Let Tom Ravlic FIPA FFA F Fin guide you through that maze in a series of podcasts. This episode provides a brief introduction to the conversation on what a professional body does and how they might impact on you. Tom will delve into more detail on professional bodies, compliance with professional education rules and disciplinary regimes in future podcasts so subscribe or keep an eye out for essential content!

Jeff Morris blew the whistle on the CBA's financial planning arm. He got the cold shoulder from the bank. The book, which has as detailed chapter on Jeff Morris' crusade, can be pre-ordered on the web sites of Dymocks, Booktopia and Book Depository amongst others.

It can be tough to understand what is happening in the finance space but you can start of dip your toe into the water by getting yourself informed.

The corporate regulator has recently meted out disciplinary action to a series of people involved in SMSF audits.

The first podcast covers the case study of Sam Henderson, a financial planner that appeared before the Hayne Royal Commission. ASIC issued a media release on 24 July 2019 that announced he had been banned for three years and that further investigations are continuing.