We manage risk responsibly and in the interest of our stakeholders and the public.
Risk management principles
The following statements articulate the principles through which we manage the risk we take across the firm, ensuring we act responsibly, in the public interest and in the interest of the entities we audit, our clients, our people, our regulators, and the markets and communities we work in.
We will:
Establish and maintain high standards in leadership, accountability, ethics and governance.
Work with trusted partners and alliances, as well as engage in mergers and acquisitions to obtain capability, where it meets our trust and growth objectives.
Carefully consider the clients, audited entities and engagements we choose to accept, within the context of our ‘ACCEPT� framework (a set of client and engagement acceptance guidance embedding our values, risk appetite and ESG commitments).
Manage actual and perceived conflicts of interest.
Protect confidential information and ensure business service continuity.
Live our values through high standards of behaviour, and promote a culture of trust, empowerment, accountability and expertise that supports them.
Anticipate and respond to changes in the competitor landscape, macro-economy and clients� and audited entities� needs.
Deliver high-quality services � through experienced and appropriately resourced teams, integrated solutions and the use of robust technology.
Set financial targets that are consistent with achieving both the trust and growth elements of our strategy.
Be courageous in undertaking work in the public interest and in support of our wider purpose.
Be brave in working together, contributing to important issues in accordance with our values.
Develop our diverse, talented and motivated people through inclusive leadership.
Risk management
It is the responsibility of our Board to identify, evaluate, manage and monitor the most significant risks that face our firm and could threaten the achievement of our strategic objectives, or our business model, future performance or solvency. The principal risks and uncertainties that the UK firm faces are set out in, and managed under, the firm’s Enterprise-Wide Risk Management (ERM) Framework. This framework is used by the Board throughout the year to ensure the timely
identification of new and emerging risks and the development of appropriate mitigations and action planning, in line with the firm’s strategy.
Incremental changes made to the enterprise risk reporting framework such as the ERM emerging risk radar and risk actions reporting.
Enhancement of the emerging themes section to become part of the monthly watchlist for emerging risks that require separate focus.
Further engagement with Level 1 risk owners to enhance communication/oversight of Level 2 risks and actions across the matrix of firm-wide, Markets and Capability ownership.
Identification of any inconsistencies in the reporting of Level 2 risks by Capabilities and Markets.
Partial rollout of the Level 3 risk taxonomy, development of system and framework training, and a full pilot conducted in People risk.
Completion of a Board Risk Assessment to confirm the appropriateness of our principal risks and identify opportunities for further enhancement.
Review and update of our risk matrix, risk appetite framework and supporting scenarios as part of a wider Enterprise-Wide Risk Management Framework refresh.
Process of further identification, documentation and testing of key risk controls and metrics initiated.
Enhancement of the risk assurance map to include L1-L3 risks, validated with function owners, and building of a dashboard accessible by the business.
Further enhancement of the Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) tool.
Further work conducted with the relevant ESG, Operations and Corporate Affairs teams to ensure that an appropriate level of information is captured in relation to climate risks to satisfy increasing external requirements such as TCFD.
Further building of the maturity of the firm-wide risk management culture through increased engagement with capabilities and central support functions.
Our assessment of how these risks have moved over time, the current risk landscape and the mitigating actions we have put in place to address each risk can be found .