Together with ICAEW, The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) today released the second installment in its Anti-Money Laundering: The Basics educational series: Installment 2: A Risk-Based Approach.  

The publication is part of a 6-month short series helping professional accountants enhance their understanding of how money laundering works, the risks they face, and what they can do to mitigate these risks and make a positive contribution to the public interest.

The first installment in the series provided a general overview of AML, including a definition of money laundering and an analysis of key concepts professional accountants must understand.  

The installment series, with its focus on accessibility and ease of use, will be a resource for Small and Medium Practices (SMPs,) and accountants less familiar with AML, while also providing guidance for those looking for a quick refresher or reference.

Anti-Money Laundering: The Basics will be featured on both the IFAC and ICAEW websites and available for download for free. To be globally relevant, the series uses the risk-based approach of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog -- as a starting point. 

For more information about IFAC, visit www.ifac.org.

For more information about ICAEW, visit https://www.icaew.com/.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) has today released for comment Exposure Draft (ED) 74, IPSAS 5, Borrowing Costs – Non-Authoritative Guidance. The ED proposes the addition of non-authoritative guidance to IPSAS 5.

The proposed non-authoritative guidance would add implementation guidance and illustrative examples to IPSAS 5. The new material proposed in ED 74 would clarify how the existing principles for when borrowing costs can be capitalized should be applied in various regularly encountered public sector contexts. No amendments are proposed to the authoritative material in IPSAS 5.

“We undertook this project to address the practical challenges constituents identified in determining which borrowing costs can be capitalized and when,” said IPSASB Chair Ian Carruthers. “This is an important step in enhancing comparability between those public sector entities that capitalize borrowing costs.”

How to Comment
To access the Exposure Draft and its summary At-a-Glance document, or to submit a comment, visit the IPSASB website, www.ipsasb.org. Comments on the Consultation Paper are requested by March 1, 2021. The IPSASB encourages IFAC members, associates, and regional accountancy organizations to promote the availability of this Consultation Paper to their members and employees.

About the IPSASB
The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) works to strengthen public financial management globally through developing and maintaining accrual-based International Public Sector Accounting Standards® (IPSAS®) and other high-quality financial reporting guidance for use by governments and other public sector entities. It also raises awareness of IPSAS and the benefits of accrual adoption. The Board receives support from the Asian Development Bank, the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada, the New Zealand External Reporting Board, and the governments of Canada and New Zealand. The structures and processes that support the operations of the IPSASB are facilitated by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). For copyright, trademark, and permissions information, please go to permissions or contact permissions@ifac.org.

About the Public Interest Committee
The governance and standard-setting activities of the IPSASB are overseen by the Public Interest Committee (PIC), to ensure that they follow due process and reflect the public interest. The PIC is comprised of individuals with expertise in public sector or financial reporting, and professional engagement in organizations that have an interest in promoting high-quality and internationally comparable financial information.

Ian Browne joined Chartered Accountants Ireland as Head of Assessment and Syllabus in 2015.  Since then he oversaw a major syllabus re-launch and more recently led the delivery of our new E-Assessment project. He was appointed as Deputy Director Education in 2019.

Prior to joining the Institute, Ian was Academic Course Leader in a leading Dublin based Professional Accounting and Business College.  He also lectured at UCD Smurfit and Dublin University (Trinity College). Prior to this he had senior financial and accounting roles in a range of commercial entities.

Ronan O’Loughlin has been Director of Education and Training at CAI since 2003.

He qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG in 1981 and spent many years working overseas in various accounting education projects.  He joined the Institute from the Irish Taxation Institute where he was Director of Education.  

Since joining the Institute Ronan was responsible for the development and enhancement of syllabi, examinations, education programme and training arrangements including alignment with the national education framework, an elective education model and increased international recognition of the Irish ACA.  

Ronan was a previous Technical Advisor to the IFAC Education Board Chair Henry Saville.