Opinie 11 februari 2009

Accountants in Parliament

De journaals, NOVA en de schrijvende pers deden verslag van de bankiers die op 10 februari jongstleden in het Britse parlement het vuur na aan de schenen werd gelegd. De bankiers werden uitgedaagd 'sorry' te zeggen en werden haast gedwongen zich ook schuldig te verklaren. En uiteraard werden ze doorgezaagd over de onvermijdelijke bonussen.

In Nederland trok dit alles vooral de aandacht omdat het indirect ook ging over de overname van delen van ABN Amro door de Royal Bank of Scotland.

Dat in Engeland de accountants eveneens het vuur na aan de schenen is gelegd (woensdag 28 januari 2009), is hier ten lande minder belicht. Ik verwijs de belangstellende lezer naar het transcript.

De volgend passage - en discussie tussen parlementslid George Mudie en de vice-voorzitter van KPMG, Brendan Nelson, wil ik u niet onthouden.

Q502 Mr Mudie: After all this year or the 18 months will you be changing your instructions to your auditors who audit the banks for this year's audit?

Mr Nelson: I would like to get across the clear understanding that auditing is dynamic, it is not static. We have to adapt to changing market environments, changing market conditions, changing standards, changing regulation, and therefore the whole audit process continues to be a dynamic process. We - and I am sure it is the same with other auditing firms - have a process of ensuring that all audit partners who are involved in financial institution audits are kept regularly abreast of what we are seeing in the marketplace and how we need to respond to that in the context of our audit. Going back to the issue around complex financial instruments and how these are valued, we do not do that on an individual basis so that one partner is out there making the decision on his own, we look at the collective knowledge of the firm in terms of what do we see across the marketplace as a whole, what is the collective view of the partners engaged in the industry who understand the nature of these instruments and the risks inherent in that, and then we seek to benchmark to make sure that there is a consistent view emerging, but recognising that in the context of illiquid markets you end up with a wider range of what people would deem to be acceptable outcomes because the pricing widens as the market becomes more illiquid, and that creates the real problem in terms of trying to get a true comparison between institution and institution.

Q503 Mr Mudie: I struggle with that because the consistent line up to now is you are not corrupt, you have not done this for these additional fees, you are not incompetent, you are doing it within strict lines and we the public and we the politicians just do not understand how limited your role is. Now you tell me you are dynamic; how does that square with what is happening because I asked the last panel what changes and they have not got round to even thinking about it, discussing it, analysing it. Maybe you are ahead of them; tell me how dynamic you are going to be with this year's audit. What have you learnt, what will you be looking out for, will you be broadening these lines that you have consistently told us are fixed and if only we understood how fixed they were we would sympathise with you, so which is it? I will tell you why, Brendan. We have had such an august figure as the Bank of England Governor, we have had the FSA tell us if only people in the banking industry and people like yourself had read our speeches, for the last two or three years we have been warning about this with speeches in Bristol and speeches here. You have no excuse; the Governor made his speech, if you are dynamic you should have picked it up. Why did you not? You have now picked it up because it has crashed around you, but what are you going to do this year? Is your audit going to be wider than you have done to earn these fees in the past few years?

Mr Nelson: The audit is dynamic in the context of the statutory responsibility that we have under law; it is not dynamic in the sense that ----

Q504 Mr Mudie: So it is not dynamic at all, it is fixed by the law.

Mr Nelson: We have no remit to extend it.

Q505 Mr Mudie: You lectured me for five minutes on dynamism and how of course you were going to change, but when I say "Tell me the change" you say it is fixed by the law.

Mr Nelson: The impression I gained from your question was that we audit in a very static environment and did not in the context of our audit work adapt to the changing environment. That was the reason I answered the question in the way I did.

Q506 Mr Mudie: Brendan, if you were watching this on television and you had lost your job, you were going to lose your house, you would be pretty bloody angry at the auditors for allowing the banks to get away with all the off balance sheet derivatives, the lot. As you go in and audit them the ordinary person would say "Why the hell didn't the auditor pick it up?" In an intelligent discussion you are saying to me "Well, it is not our business." Will it be your business in future or will there need to be discussions and changes, maybe even changes in the law? Have you started those?

Mr Nelson: Those discussions clearly will take place with the Auditing Practices Board, the International Accounting Standards Board, the Financial Reporting Council in terms of the role of the auditor going forward, but I really do want to come back to this point about the fact ----

Q507 Mr Mudie: There is a cold shiver going up my spine. That does not sound very good to me.

De liefhebber kan de hoorzitting ook bekijken op de website van het parlement. U krijgt er dan het sausje van Engelse humor, sarcasme en cynisme bij. Heerlijk voor een koude winteravond! Goed, ik geef u nog een klein voorbeeld:

Chairman: Lastly, Mr Nelson, given your expertise, from what I am told the report and accounts of HSBC last year were almost 500 pages. Could you with a good malt whisky sit down at the fireside one night and fully understand it, looking at that report?

Q531 Mr Mudie: Do not say you do not drink whisky; you will offend the Chairman.

Mr Nelson: It is not a book that you would read cover to cover - it is not a book - but if you have an interest in particular aspects it is quite a good dictionary to look in.

Q532 Chairman: You think there is maybe a good chance of getting drunk before you understood it. Thank you very much.

Mr Nelson: That is your comment, Chairman.