AIA news

AIA COUNCIL

AIA announces new Council members

AIA is pleased to announce the addition of five new members to its Council. Rebecca Hossain, Dr Peter Ellington, Dee Shah, Kim Robinson, and John Froggett bring a wealth of skills, experience and knowledge to further strengthen the board. Their strong professional backgrounds will support AIA to continue to grow and deliver its strategic objectives. The five also have proven leadership ability, which brings the right balance of challenge and support to this key governance role.

In line with its Constitution and Code of Ethics, AIA’s corporate governance structure comprises the Council and several Committees, which are formed of AIA and lay members acting as ‘critical friends’, driving forward the corporate strategy and ensuring that we act in the public interest. The new additions build on the diverse composition of the Council, which reflects the global membership, and contribute to the goal of achieving gender balance on the board by 2025.

Philip Turnbull, AIA Chief Executive, said: ‘I am delighted to welcome our newest members of the Council. I strongly believe the new appointments will further enhance the effectiveness of the board and reaffirm our commitment to gender balance, equality, sustainability, inclusivity and diversity.’

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

AIA’s commitment to achieving gender balance on the Council

AIA believes that people of all genders have equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities, including economic participation and decision making. Gender inequality is a pressing moral and social issue and a critical economic challenge. Gender equality is essential for economic prosperity.

At AIA, we embrace people’s differences and believe diversity and inclusion are vital for the sustainability of our organisation, the accountancy profession and the economies in which our members operate.

AIA considers that the diversity of thoughts, ideas and ways of working that people from different backgrounds, experiences, genders and identities bring are beneficial to the success of the organisation. The advantages of having a range of perspectives in decision making – and in our board representing our members – is indisputable. The Council is comprised of 53% other ethnic backgrounds against 47% white British/Irish.

46% of our global membership is female. The AIA Council currently stands at 29% female and it is a key strategic goal to ensure that the Council reflects our membership. We aim to achieve gender balance and reach 50% by 2025 or earlier.

AIA Chief Executive Philip Turnbull said: ‘It is in the public interest that the governing bodies of all professional accountancy organisations should represent their membership, and society as a whole. Our Council members highlight the ethnic diversity of an international organisation. The benefits of inclusion and diversity to support the development and implementation of AIA’s strategy are clear; we are also committed to achieving gender balance on the Council to strengthen our diversity.’

Interested in becoming a lay member?

We are currently looking for lay members to join the Council. Lay members are board members, who are not members of AIA but individuals chosen to provide an independent element to the workings of our governance. Lay members are encouraged to bring their different professional experiences and capabilities to the board’s deliberations.

To express an interest please forward a copy of your CV and a covering letter highlighting your skills and experience to: council@aiaworldwide.com.

AIA COUNCIL

A safe space for all

Boards should be a safe space for all. Ranjana Bell MBE discusses the importance of diversity and inclusion in business with the AIA Council.

In November, the AIA Council welcomed Ranjana Bell MBE to discuss creating a safe space for difficult and courageous conversations around diversity and inclusion. The dialogue formed part of the ongoing training programme for AIA’s governing body and our commitment to nurturing a diverse and inclusive environment throughout our organisation.

Ranjana has worked in the field of equality and diversity for over 40 years. She currently chairs the Strategic Independent Advisory Group for Northumbria Police and is an independent member of Northumbria Police Misconduct Panels. She has been co-chair of the Scrutiny Panel for Race and Religious Hate Crime for the Crown Prosecution Service and a Steering Group member for Asian Business Connexions, as well as a government appointed Commissioner for the Women’s National Commission, and chair of the North East Equality and Diversity Partnership.

AIA President, Shahram Moallemi, said: ‘It was a pleasure to welcome Ranjana to speak with us today. She facilitated a discussion around key diversity and inclusion topics, such as ‘What is unconscious bias?’ and ‘What does being inclusive actually require me to do in my business?’

‘The Council is made up of people from a huge variety of backgrounds and we value the advantages of having a range of perspectives contributing to our decision making. Ranjana’s presentation highlighted the importance of keeping equality and diversity front and centre and the need for a committed leadership where dignity and respect are core to the business philosophy.’

PROFESSIONAL BODY SUPERVISOR

AIA AML Supervisory Activity Report 2021/22

AIA has published its professional body supervisor report, which explains work that we have carried out to ensure accountants prevent criminals from using their services to launder money.

AIA supervises its practising members for the purposes of the UK Money Laundering Regulations 2017 (amended 2019), where AIA is listed in Schedule 1 as an approved supervisory body. In the Republic of Ireland, AIA is a designated body under the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act. This work is overseen by HM Treasury, the Office for Professional Body AML Supervision (OPBAS) and the Republic of Ireland Departments of Finance and Justice.

The AIA’s strategy is to provide robust anti-money laundering (AML) supervision through a risk-based approach. This requires firms to assess risks and target resources to the areas or products that are most likely to be used to launder money. We offer support to members through education, guidance, training, compliance checklists and templates.

The report covers:

● our role in tackling money laundering and terrorist financing;

● firms and individuals in scope of the regulations;

● monitoring and supervision activity;

● reporting suspicious activity;

● whistleblowing and anti-money laundering disclosures;

● emerging risks; and

● upcoming areas of focus and supervisory activity.

George Josephakis, Chair of the AIA Regulatory Oversight Committee, said: ‘AIA continues to take its role as an AML professional body supervisor for accountants extremely seriously. This includes enforcing compliance where breaches are detected, and educating members on their AML obligations.’

In this reporting year, we have seen key activities relating to educating members on new requirements, resulting from sanctions imposed by governments in the UK and across the EU on Russia following the illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 Building on our previous year’s activities, we have invested in staff training; undertaken a review of supervised Trust or Company Service Providers; made a specific data request relating to sanctions compliance; and delivered high-quality training and guidance to members.

The full report is available at: bit.ly/3GVBoo4

SCHOLARSHIPS

2023 scholarships launched

AIA has launched its 2023 scholarship programme to support students with strong career aspirations in accountancy or audit to obtain the AIA professional qualification, with full financial assistance.

The Accountancy Scholarship UK and AIA Commonwealth Scholarship opportunities represent one of the steps that AIA is taking to develop financial education and provide students with a real chance to fulfil their potential. Both scholarship programmes are fully funded via AIA Achieve Academy.

We are committed to a policy of equal opportunity and non-discrimination, and encourage applications from a diverse range of candidates.

The scholarship programmes are open for applications until 28 February 2023. Read more and apply at: www. aiaworldwide.com/study/scholarships/