We present to you a special edition of Copenhagen Compliance Conference on the 13th May 2009 with special focus on the current challenges facing Governance, Risk and Compliance concerns. The main theme of the conference is; How to effectively design, support, leverage, implement and control your Governance, Risk and Compliance solutions and achieve 'value' throughout the current crisis.

Copenhagen Compliance Conference will provide a 360° course for charting Governance, Risk, Compliance (GRC) culture and perspectives in view of the global financial crisis

• Risk Assessments have become more diverse and interrelated
• Laws and regulations have become more complicated. Boards and Executives are now more accountable
• The management of enterprise risk and compliance has become a critical business issue and can provide a strategic competitive advantage

By the end of the day, you will:

• Have the vocabulary to discuss your GRC technology needs
• Know how to identify GRC-related technology redundancies, gaps and needs
• Be able to engage or complete a plan for GRC optimization in your organization

The European Commission has suspended plans that would improve the regulation of audit firms, citing a lack of cooperation from the U.S. as the primary reason.

Charlie McCreevy, the commissioner for the internal market and services, circulated a draft decision in January 2009 that would let Europe’s national audit regulators cooperate with their counterparts in the U.S., Japan, and Canada.

But now the plan is on hold. The reason is that before making a decision The European Commission needs time to ensure that the United States, in particular, is ready to cooperate fully, based upon mutual trust and mutual assistance.

By Jesper Jarlbæk

Just as we thought the accounting profession might finally be sheltered from “knock out” financial scandals by the European Commission's proposals for limited liability, the US court decisions to allow the coordinating entities to be sued together with their member firms and the anger from shareholders that the ongoing financial crisis has created, appear to constitute the prelude to a battle of life and death of the public accounting industry's major players.

International accounting rules and standards are complex. Probably an extensive overhaul is past overdue. However the company’s GRC response to the complexity should be to encourage clarification and not concealment.

From 2009 European Stock-listed companies has to set up an Audit Committee, consistent with international conclusions, EU directives and e.g. SOX rules. The purpose of the committee is to

• review and evaluate the company’s reporting procedures
• review and evaluate business procedures
• handle internal controls in relation to financial reporting
• assess reports from the external auditors
• oversee accurate financial reporting and disclosure
• ...

A response to the Current Financial Market Turmoil could be rigorous focus in implementing the 4th, 7th and the 8th EU directives to the letter could provide the answers to stabilize the financial reporting system.

Stakeholders need to be reassured that the fundamental issues that led to the current turmoil are being addressed to. EU directives could provide some answers.

In Scandinavia like in several other countries, many senior managers were released of their responsibilities in 2008. Patience is currently not a virtue in the board rooms. The leash given to the President and/or CEO by the stakeholders will probably be much shorter in 2009.

Within the first two quarters of 2009 the President together with other board members will clarify the future role and responsibilities of the CEO/CFO.

EU has opted for 'comply-or-explain' as standard, probably because it simply follows the trail from the English Cadbury Report. The knowledgeable EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy is familiar with the English combined code of corporate governance, from his time as Irish accountant, minister and politician.

With special permission from Colleen Cunningham, managing director of the New York tristate area for Resources Global Professionals, we are pleased to provide you with an interesting article.

The recent collapse of a number of major financial institutions globally has demonstrated that despite being the most regulated sector in every territory, despite the level of oversight and financial reserving or asset set aside required, despite the complexities of risk management supposedly inherent in the business models and engrained in the DNA of financial institutions, something went massively wrong.

Considerable attention must be geared in resolving the current crisis. Given the current market conditions, the scope of work to be undertaken indicates the changes in various regulation now being considered.

ISACA holds a conference covering IT Governance, Security and Assurance April 22-23. The conference is Scandinavian with highly respected speakers from Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The conference consist of three tracks covering IT Governance, IT Security and IT Assurance each with three speakers from each country. Furthermore there will be four international key note speakers, including Professor Steen Thomsen from Copenhagen Business School.

Please read the following blogs E-mail Compliance, Comply or Explain , and Whistleblower

When everything else fails we suggest the use the following GRC checklist framework to help you survive the current crisis: We present a 10 point plan on how to reenergize the GRC strategy and a GRC Checklist.