Evaluation of performance of AMP Limited
The report aims to evaluate the various perspectives to evaluate the performance of the AMP Limited with an augmented focus towards the financial planning. The section of the report has been seen to include different aspects of the ethical performance of accountants who are seen to involved in the various types of the activities of AMP under APES 110 and APES 230. The report has also stated about of AMP’s unidentified systematic issues. The latter part of the study has explained the purpose of the auditing. The last part of the study has also provided the evaluation on the role of the auditing and stated about evaluation of the audit function and provide the socially responsible outcomes, stewardship and common good.
The common good of the company is ensures with improving the advisory functions related to banking, insurance and superannuation and superannuation. In addition to this the company complies with the regulation prescribed under the “Corporations Act” and ASA. The customer solution focus is depicted in terms of the services associated to marketing efforts made to increase the sales and taking the prior consent of the customers (Chaplin 2017).
The stewardship aspect of the company ensured with responsible investment and the good practice corporate governance. The AMP capital and the investment management is regarded as the important aspect ion terms of the evolution of the various type of the factors which are seen to be related to maintaining integrity to deliver the right service as per the broader interest of the shareholders (Heyes 2017).
The continuation of the various types of the sustainability aspects are depicted with meeting the goals of the customers, people and community. The customer central approach for the company is aimed at maintaining several types of the transformation strategies to reshape the process, products, systems and services simplify the process. AMP has drawn diverse experiences from building of relevant culture of performance and integrity. AMP is committed towards the announcement of the environment targets and review the work on “Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)” (Corporate.amp.com.au 2018).
The strong sense of the social purpose of the AMP culture is evident with the three-core element which are associated to the various factors such as integrity, help and performance. The company has also focused its key investment pertaining to the ESG performance. The social performance of the company is based on the UN backed principles to track the progress of AMP capital.
Assessment of the ethical performance of the accountants who are seen to be employed under AMP insurance
The APES 230 is considered to set out the mandatory necessities pertaining to the guidance provided to the members who are involved in the provision for the ethical and quality of the financial planning services. The financial planning services are also depicted to include the personal financial affairs of the client associated to the risk management, wealth management, retirement planning and estate planning.
The standard of APES 230 was initiated in 1 July 2014. AMP is depicted to comply to the relevant standards as prescribed in the mandatory requirement of APES. In addition to this, the company has also adopted the professional issues and ethical standards as per the public interest applicable to the members of the CPA Australia.
The main aspects for “APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants” is seen to be issues by the “Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board (APESB)”. It needs to be also identified that the company was established as an independent entity which was established in 2006 as an initiate of the CPA Australia and CA in Australia and New Zealand. As per this code the members of this code the company did not follow professional and ethical standards as per the public interest (Cpaaustralia.com.au 2018).
The non-compliance of the ethical standards as per APES 110 is seen with unlawfully deducting the service fees from the customers since 2009. This is seen to be inclusive of the practice of unlawfully charging from the clients and non-deliverance of the financial service by AMP. The following of the inappropriate financial planning as per the advisory service is also seen to violate the guidelines as per CPA. There have been several instances of repeated misrepresentation which has led to misleading of the corporate regulator ASIC. The misconduct of the financial planning is also seen as another are of breach of ASA. Some of the other areas of the breach of code of conduct by the company is evident as per purposefully interfering with the independent auditor’s report of ASIC. This was evident with delivering more than 700 emails and 25 drafts by the Clayton Utz law firm (Corporate.amp.com.au 2018).
AMP has audited the financial reports by considering its subsidiaries and comprehensive income statement. These are further stated with the consideration of the consolidation of the income statement and comprehensive income along with the statement of changes in the cash flows. The notes to the financial statement has been further included the summary of the relevant accounting policies and declaration made by the directors. The accompaniment of the financial statement of the company can be depicted in accordance to the “Corporations Act 2001” which is seen to be as per the inclusion of the financial performance for the year ended as per financial year 2017. The company has further adhered to the “Australian Accounting Standards” and “Corporations Regulations 2001” (Krupenye et al. 2016).
Context of AMP Limited to explain the purpose of auditing and provide evaluation of the role of audit functioning
The breaching of the corporation’s act has been also evident in terms of another act of misconduct. This is directly seen with the breach of opinion pertaining to the audited report as per AAS. Some of the other standards are further depicted to be in accordance with the ethical requirement as per Professional and Ethical Standards under the APES 110 which are relevant to the financial report in Australia (Middleton et al. 2017).
Figure: Compliance of the auditing standards as per the APES 110
(Source: Corporate.amp.com.au 2018)
The key audit mattes in the report has been detected to be based on the several types of the considerations as per the professional judgement which is significant with the auditing of the financial report in the present year (Kano et al. 2017). These concerns are already addressed in the audit report of the company and AMP does maintain declaration of separate opinion pertaining to this matter. The company has been also able to fulfil the responsibilities as prescribed in the responsivities of the auditors. As per the declaration of the audit report of the company the performance and procedures have accompanied to the financial reporting standards of “Australian Accounting Standards” (George, Jones and Harvey 2014).
Conclusion
The overall evaluation of the performance of AMP Limited is seen to be positive in regards to stewardship aspect, sustainability and strong sense of the social purpose. It needs to be also discerned that the Assessment of the ethical performance of the accountants are seen to be breached with unlawful deductions of the service deducted from the customer’s account since 2009. There have been several instances of deductions pertaining to misconduct in in financial planning. In addition to this, the ethical misconducts of the company are also seen with purposefully interfering with the independent report of ASIC which was evident with delivery of 700 emails and 25 drafts by the law firm.
References
Chaplin, S., 2017. Accounting Education and the Prerequisite Skills of Accounting Graduates: Are Accounting Firms’ Moving the Boundaries?. Australian Accounting Review, 27(1), pp.61-70.
Corporate.amp.com.au. (2018)- 2017 towards sustainability report [online] Available at: https://corporate.amp.com.au/content/dam/corporate/shareholdercentre/files/reports/2018/Investor_and_annual_reports/2017_towards_sustainability_report.pdf [Accessed 27 Aug. 2018].
Corporate.amp.com.au. (2018). 2017 Annual report [online]- Available at: https://corporate.amp.com.au/content/dam/corporate/shareholdercentre/files/reports/2018/Investor_and_annual_reports/2017_annual_report_20_march_2018.pdf [Accessed 27 Aug. 2018].
Cpaaustralia.com.au. (2018). APES 110. [online] Available at: https://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/professional-resources/accounting-professional-and-ethical-standards/apes-110-code-of-ethics-for-professional-accountants [Accessed 27 Aug. 2018].
Cpaaustralia.com.au. (2018). APES 230. [online] Available at: https://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/professional-resources/accounting-professional-and-ethical-standards/apes-230-financial-planning-services [Accessed 27 Aug. 2018].
George, G., Jones, A. and Harvey, J., 2014. Analysis of the language used within codes of ethical conduct. Journal of Academic and Business Ethics, 8, p.1.
Heyes, C., 2017. Apes submentalise. Trends in cognitive sciences, 21(1), pp.1-2.
Kano, F., Krupenye, C., Hirata, S., Call, J. and Tomasello, M., 2017. Submentalizing cannot explain belief-based action anticipation in apes. Trends in cognitive sciences, 21(9), pp.633-634.
Krupenye, C., Kano, F., Hirata, S., Call, J. and Tomasello, M., 2016. Great apes anticipate that other individuals will act according to false beliefs. Science, 354(6308), pp.110-114.
Middleton, E.R., Winkler, Z.J., Hammond, A.S., Plavcan, J.M. and Ward, C.V., 2017. Determinants of iliac blade orientation in anthropoid primates. The Anatomical Record, 300(5), pp.810-827.