The update, Enterprise Risk Management — Aligning Risk with Strategy and Performance, is designed to address the needs of all organizations to improve their approach to managing new and existing risks as a way to help create, preserve, sustain and realize value.

The update reflects the critical importance of the connection between strategy and performance, offers perspective on current and evolving concepts and applications of enterprise risk management, and updates the core definitions of risk and enterprise risk management. One of the most significant enhancements is the introduction of components and supporting principles that reflect the evolution of risk management thinking and practices.

COSO has expanded its website, www.COSO.org, with a section on the Framework update that includes the proposed Framework, survey and comment tools, and FAQs about the project, details of the most significant updates and how to respond to the survey. The site also includes a video that features four members of the Advisory Council addressing the ERM update process and the importance of obtaining input from a variety of risk professionals about the proposed changes.

Comments on the proposal are due by September 30, 2016. For more information, see the press release and proposal on COSO’s Web site.

The majority of CPAB's total significant inspection findings in 2015 required the audit firm to carry out additional audit procedures to determine the need, if any, to restate the financial statements due to material error. The remaining findings required the audit firms to add considerable evidence to the audit file to show they had obtained sufficient and appropriate audit evidence with respect to a major balance sheet item or transaction stream.

The following audit quality themes noted in CPAB's November 2015 inspections report on the Big Four accounting firms also apply to the other firms inspected this year:

• Executing audit fundamentals
• Understanding business processes relevant to financial reporting
• Complex accounting estimates
• Internal controls
• Professional judgment and skepticism
• Identification of accounting issues

Review the press release, the Annual Inspections Report and the Highlights for Audit Committees on the CPAB's Web site.

At December 31, 2015, 286 audit firms were registered with CPAB. During 2015, CPAB inspected 39 firms in total and 179 engagement files. For the 14 firms inspected annually, CPAB inspected 144 files and identified significant inspection findings in 43 of these files. In addition, CPAB inspected 35 files at 25 other firms and identified significant inspection findings in 28 files.

The majority of CPAB’s total significant inspection findings in 2015 required the audit firm to carry out additional audit procedures to verify there was no need to restate the financial statements due to material error. The remaining findings required the audit firms to add considerable evidence to the audit file to show they had obtained sufficient and appropriate audit evidence with respect to a major balance sheet item or transaction stream. The results of carrying out additional audit procedures resulted in 11 restatements or six per cent of files inspected.

Review the Annual Report on the CPAB's Web site.

What should your board have on its plate in 2016?

Directors’ Alert, “Ingredients for Success: Striking the right balance,” highlights some of key challenges facing boards of directors in 2016. Each topic was developed with input from Deloitte specialists and independent directors from around the globe, explores potential actions boards can take to address the issues, and includes questions directors can ask management to further understand the impact these issues have within their own organization.

Review the Directors’ Alert.

Over the coming months and years, there will be significant changes to the political landscape. In the short term, the government is likely to set up a cross-departmental task force in order to negotiate Britain’s exit from the EU.

To counteract the immediate negative shock to the economy, it is likely that a number of policy measures will be announced. The government could introduce some pro-business measures in an emergency budget, ease fiscal deficit cuts and temporarily suspend its fiscal rules and the Bank of England’s inflation target.

The medium-term impact on the economy is harder to assess and will depend largely on the pace and success of the government’s negotiations with the EU and on future access to the single market.

In the longer term, economic activity will be determined by a combination of the nature of the UK’s post-exit trade relationship with the EU and its ability to exploit its newfound freedom to forge individual trade deals with emerging markets outside the EU.

Review our Initial Response to the EU Referendum released by our UK firm: Explore the effects of Brexit on business and the economy.

Deloitte UK offers a website dedicated to the EU referendum and its result offering insight papers, perspectives and access to webinars on what this change can mean.

In announcing the G7‘s fundamental principles, the European Commission recognised the work of the G7 Cyber Expert Group in responding to the increasingly sophisticated cyber threats being faced by the financial sector.

The G7's fundamental principles are designed to assist both private and public sector financial entities in addressing the risks of cyber-attacks against such financial organisations. It is also expected that these fundamental principles will assist public authorities in steering any public policy, regulatory or supervisory obligations.

The report consists of eight non-binding elements that are intended to provide high-level guidance to support financial entities in creating cyber security strategy and policies.

Review a summary and the report on the European Commission's website.

The GRI Standards are a set of 36 modular standards that facilitate corporate reporting on topics such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy and water use, and labor practices. The GRI Standards are centered on materiality – focusing on the topics that represent the most significant impacts of the organization and are most important to organizations’ stakeholders – which supports sustainability reporting that is tailored to each individual company. A company can prepare a sustainability report in accordance with the GRI Standards at Core or Comprehensive level, or disclose individual topics to meet specific reporting needs.

The GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards will enable companies around the world to be more transparent about their impacts on the economy, the environment and society.

Please click for the press release on the GRI's Web site. The GRI Standards are available for free download through the GRI Standards hub, along with extensive additional resources.

In his speech, Mr. Bauguess explains that just because we have a lot of data, that doesn't ensure that there will be an application for it all. And big data can’t fix bad empirical methods, and bad data can’t be analyzed no matter how big it is. Data quality remains important no matter its size. So, we continue to need to think carefully about how we collect data. And just as we did in assembling small data samples in a prior era, we need to do the same when generating large samples today.

Review the speech on the SEC's website.

Much of this, Goldman says, would be due to the enacting of plans President-elect Donald Trump proposed on the campaign trail, such as a tax holiday for overseas income and changes to the corporate tax code.

Other areas that will see a boost include capital expenditures, research and development, as well and mergers and acquisitions.

Review the article on Bloomberg Market's website.