After seven of its accountants received penalties from financial regulators, KPMG Certified Public Accountants (
On Tuesday, the accounting firm reshuffled its top management by forming a seven-member board, chaired by Chang Wu-yee (張五益). KPMG also plans to invite one or two outside directors from the academic sector to its board.
Chang, who took over the accounting firm's leadership from former head Albert Lou (羅子強), said that the company's new organizational structure aims to separate its policy-making system from its executive body.
As part of his reform plan, Chang stressed the importance of audit integration, saying that KPMG will now differentiate between its clients as financial service sector and non-financial sector, so as to help upgrade its accounting services.
Thus far, financial-service clients have accounted for up to 80 percent of KPMG's total revenues a year, according to Chang.
In the past few months, the nation's financial watchdog, the Financial Supervisory Commission, imposed penalties on accountants from KPMG and its counterparts for their negligence in certifying listed companies' financial reports, following the emergence of several corporate scandals since June last year.
In December, the commission imposed penalties on 12 certified public accountants for negligence in certifying financial documents of such companies as Procomp Informatics Co (
These actions appeared to suggest that the commission now holds accountants more responsible for the accuracy of listed companies' financial reports they have certified.
Facing such escalating levels of business risk and responsibility, Ulyos Maa (
The firm will also form a special review team to identify risk when certifying listed companies' financial documents, while strengthening the training of its junior partners.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last