Chartered Accountants Global Update

Chartered Accountants Worldwide

Stay connected, informed, and inspired with Chartered Accountants Global Update, the official weekly audio newsletter from Chartered Accountants Worldwide. Each episode brings you the latest from our global community of over 1.8 million trusted professionals — from must-attend events and upcoming webinars to fresh insights and articles exploring the key issues shaping the accountancy profession today. Tune in for highlights on: Major conferences and networking opportunities around the world.Practical guidance on navigating challenges like burnout, upskilling for AI transformation, and building inclusive workplaces.In-depth explorations of how Chartered Accountants are leading change across technology, leadership, sustainability, and more.Wherever you are, take Chartered Accountants Worldwide with you — pop in your earbuds, grab your coffee, and get your global update on the go.

  1. 1d ago

    Episode 5: Trust in Transition: Stablecoins and Climate Risk Reporting

    Trust in Transition: Stablecoins and Climate Risk Reporting Two very different stories made headlines in the accounting world recently, and together they say something important about where the profession is heading. The first is about stablecoins. They have moved from a niche corner of crypto into serious policy conversations, yet some fundamental questions remain unanswered. Should a stablecoin sit on the balance sheet as cash, an intangible asset, or something else entirely? The answer matters more than it might seem: classify it wrong and a bank could lose the ability to use it for liquidity at all. Layer on unresolved tax treatment (should every coffee paid for in stablecoin really trigger a taxable event?) and a patchy assurance landscape, and it becomes clear that mainstream adoption depends less on the technology and more on the profession's ability to build the trust infrastructure around it. The second story is about climate risk reporting, and it is maturing fast. The days of longer and longer disclosures are giving way to a sharper focus on materiality: what genuinely matters to stakeholders, and why. Investors are asking for less noise and more signal. Responsibility is shifting into finance functions, audit committees are paying closer attention, and the hardest challenge of all remains translating long range climate scenarios into numbers that fit a three year planning cycle. On the surface, stablecoins and climate disclosures could not look more different. But both are really about the same thing: building confidence in areas where the rules have not fully caught up with reality yet. That is not a new job for chartered accountants. It is the job. It is just showing up in some genuinely new places. We unpack both stories, and what they mean for practitioners, in episode 5 of Chartered Accountants Global Update. Have a listen and let us know what you think.

  2. Aug 13

    Episode 4: AI, sustainability and trust: three things worth your attention

    Trust has always been the currency of the accounting profession, and this month's stories show just how much that idea is being tested and reinforced at the same time. First up is a new paper from Chartered Accountants Worldwide on artificial intelligence and trust in the profession. Its central message is refreshingly clear: no matter how advanced the tool, responsibility for professional work always rests with the Chartered Accountant. The paper sets out five core principles, human accountability, professional scepticism, awareness of AI specific trust risks, strong governance, and cybersecurity and transparency, then walks through eleven concrete risk areas, from automation bias to accountability gaps. It closes with a practical framework of questions firms can use before adopting an AI tool, not after. The bottom line: AI can sharpen our work, but it can't carry our ethical obligations for us. On the sustainability side, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand has released a new Sustainability Playbook, and it's a genuinely useful resource. It walks practitioners through the fundamentals of stakeholder mapping and materiality assessments, then into strategy, target setting, and data processes, before addressing how to embed sustainability into an organisation's culture. It also covers inclusive workplace practices and mental health, a good reminder that sustainability is as much about people as it is about emissions data. As CA ANZ puts it, Chartered Accountants play a vital role in producing decision useful sustainability disclosures that investors and stakeholders rely on, so a clear playbook like this gives practitioners a real head start. Finally, for anyone working at the sharp end of ESG reporting, the ESG and Sustainability Controllers Conference 2026 is worth diarising. Running from September 15th to 17th and organised by A4S in partnership with the Center for Impact at UCLA Anderson, it's built specifically for finance leaders and controllers dealing with real world reporting challenges rather than theory. Expect sessions on ESG governance structures, materiality assessments, data controls, executive communication, and financial modelling that connects sustainability directly to business impact. Registration is open now through the A4S website. Taken together, these three stories point to the same conclusion: the profession is being asked to move faster on both AI and sustainability, and the accountants who earn the most trust will be the ones who pair that speed with judgment, governance, and genuinely useful practical tools.

  3. Aug 6

    AI study, sustainability, and two conferences to watch

    Episode 3 of Chartered Accountants Global Update is out, and it's a packed one. Host Olivia brings listeners a mix of AI, sustainability, and events worth marking in the diary. First up is a call to action. Chartered Accountants Worldwide, alongside its network of member institutes and research firm Ipsos, has launched Wave 2 of its global study on AI and the future of the profession. It builds on Wave 1 and digs into how traditional AI, generative AI, and now agentic AI are reshaping the roles, skills, and expectations of chartered accountants everywhere. The survey takes about fifteen minutes, responses stay confidential, and the results will shape how institutes support members through this next wave of change, from training and standards to the tools firms invest in. If you haven't taken part yet, the link is available through your institute or on the Chartered Accountants Worldwide website. From AI, the episode turns to sustainability. The CA Sustainability Community, run by Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, continues its practical, webinar based series, with the next session on 22 September. The focus stays grounded in how to demonstrate sustainability risks and opportunities to boards, clients, and investors, making it a low effort way to stay current. Looking further ahead, two flagship events land this October. The ICAS Sustainability Summit 2026 takes place on Wednesday 7 October at Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh, with a hybrid option to join online. Expect a keynote from Fiona Watson of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, plus a panel featuring voices from Transition Finance Scotland, GSK, Swire Pacific, and more, all exploring how sustainability translates into commercial value. Just over a week later, on Friday 16 October, the ICAEW Annual Conference 2026 takes over the InterContinental London at The O2. Mathematician and broadcaster Professor Hannah Fry headlines, exploring how AI and emerging technology are reshaping business and society. The day also includes specialist afternoon tracks across practice, industry, and policy, plus up to eight hours of CPD. Tickets are 295 pounds, with full details available through ICAEW. Three things to act on this episode: add your voice to the AI global study, get sustainability savvy with the CA Sustainability Community, and pencil in Edinburgh and London for October. Links to everything covered are available at charteredaccountantsworldwide.com.

  4. Jul 30

    Episode 2: Guardrails and Global Reach

    Season two continues with an episode that swings from a friendly run through the City of London to a genuine warning about AI governance, then zooms out to the pressures facing the profession worldwide. It opens on the Standard Chartered Great City Race, where twenty ICAEW colleagues joined more than five thousand runners for the annual five kilometre event through London. The real story wasn't the running, though. Afterwards, Sarah Prescott, who chairs the CAW taskforce for wellbeing, equality, diversity and inclusion, organised a joint social with runners from Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, turning a race into a chance to build relationships across the network. CAW even sponsored a trophy for the fastest team. CA ANZ took it home this year, helped by an individual time of sixteen minutes thirty. From there, the tone sharpens. ICAEW has published six safeguards every organisation should build into an AI agent deployment, and the underlying message is blunt: most AI failures trace back to the organisation, not the model. The list covers limiting an agent's access to only what it needs, sandboxing before going live, naming a human owner for every agent, keeping backups the agent can't reach, building in a kill switch, and having a clear escalation plan. That last point carries real weight. EU breaches can mean fines of up to thirty five million euros, or seven per cent of global turnover, and recent research found that none of the leading AI models currently meet an acceptable bar for compliance with EU AI and privacy law. This isn't a job to hand off to IT. It's a leadership responsibility. The episode closes with a global scan from ICAEW's mid-year review, and the picture is a profession under pressure from every direction at once. Tariff uncertainty is now a finance problem in North America. Talent shortages are constraining Chinese firms expanding overseas. Europe's sustainability reporting timeline has slipped again, even as a harmonised EU framework moves toward a possible 2027 launch. Australia is pushing ahead with mandatory climate disclosures, and Southeast Asia is focused on building its next generation of finance professionals. Three stories, three different scales. But the thread holds: relationships, governance and global awareness are all doing more work than usual right now.

  5. Jul 23

    Episode 1: AI, sustainability, energy, and the future of accounting. Are you ready for the 5th Industrial Revolution?

    Season 2 kicks off with three stories that, on the surface, look unrelated: an event about industrial revolutions, a piece on carers, and one on school leavers. But they all circle the same idea, so here's the post. Chartered Accountants Global Update returns for season two, and the opening episode makes the case that the profession is quietly redefining what "value" even means. The first thread comes from an upcoming CAW Network USA session, Beyond Accounting: The Coming of the 5th Industrial Revolution. The pitch is that the Fourth Industrial Revolution was about efficiency, digitising data, automating the grunt work, cutting cost. The Fifth builds on that but changes the scorecard. Environmental impact, human wellbeing and income inequality move from footnote to headline, and stakeholder capitalism starts to matter as much as shareholder return. There's a sharper edge to it too: the same firms driving the AI and data centre boom are now bumping into real energy constraints, which makes energy security a live issue for finance teams, not just engineers. The second thread is closer to home. Unpaid carers are one of the fastest growing groups in the UK's working age population, and research from the Institute for Employment Studies shows they're less likely to be in paid work, and less likely to work full-time, than everyone else. That's not a lack of willingness to work, it's workplaces not flexing around what caring actually requires. Becoming a carer-friendly employer isn't one big policy change. It's usable flexibility, managers who can have the conversation well, and a culture where people don't feel they need to hide it. The third thread is about who gets in the door in the first place. Figures from Progress Together show around 90% of senior finance and accountancy roles go to people from higher socioeconomic backgrounds, and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds earn on average £17,500 less, the largest pay gap of any UK sector. BDO's response has been a school leavers scheme, an entry route that skips the traditional university path, because as its Head of Audit for Scotland puts it, this isn't goodwill, it's talent strategy. Ninety percent of senior roles coming from one slice of society means firms are all fighting over the same narrow pool. Three different stories, one underlying question: how widely does the profession define value, in its strategy, in its people, and in who it lets in.

  6. Jul 16

    Episode 50: Season One in Review: Trust, AI, and a Confession

    Fifty episodes in, we pause to look back at the very best of season one: the people, the numbers, and the stories that defined a year in the life of the world's Chartered Accountancy community. We revisit Catriona Jennings, the Chartered Accountant turned Olympian and record-holding ultra-runner; Manuel Rodriguez, building an agricultural microeconomy in Mozambique that supports tens of thousands of farmers; Liswaniso Namatama in Lusaka, who gave us the defining quote of the season, "Audit is a human business"; Lem Chin Kok in Singapore, whose career runs from commercial crime policing to an AI-first technology firm; and Khethiwe Sibanyoni in South Africa, applying audit discipline to the fight against gender-based violence. We also count the season by the numbers: two new member institutes welcomed, a community of more than two million members and students across 190+ countries, a tenth birthday for Chartered Accountants Worldwide, and confirmation from Edelman that Chartered Accountants are the third most trusted profession on Earth. Then there are the headlines that shaped the year: AI adoption running at more than 70% across the profession, sustainability reporting and the UK's 2027 carbon border adjustment rollout, the tax traps hiding inside summer remote working, and research showing Chartered Accountants to be curious, creative, and altruistic. And finally, note one to the accounts. Because trust depends on transparency, we disclose exactly how this podcast has been made, and introduce Olivia, your new host for season two. Every story real. Every statistic checked. Every episode signed off by humans. Season two starts next week. Everything mentioned is linked in the show notes at charteredaccountantsworldwide.com.

  7. Jul 9

    Episode 49: Trust, Technology and the Questions Every Business Should Be Asking Right Now

    Trust, Technology and the Questions Every Business Should Be Asking Right Now Three stories crossed our desk this month, and although they look unrelated at first glance, they all circle back to the same question: as technology and global ways of working accelerate, what actually earns trust? Governance will define the winners of the AI era In a recent piece for Chartered Accountants Worldwide, Fauzia Safdar Khan, Senior Director for Sustainability and Climate at Crowe Pakistan, makes a case worth sitting with. Most conversations about AI focus on speed and competitive advantage. Her argument is that neither determines whether AI creates lasting value. Governance does. This is especially true in sustainability, where stakeholders have moved past accepting pledges and now expect evidence, backed by reliable data and clear oversight. AI can help process that evidence, but the technology itself is far from weightless. It runs on physical infrastructure: data centres, semiconductors, water and electricity, all of which carry their own environmental cost. Fauzia calls this one of the defining paradoxes of the next decade, and her answer isn't to slow adoption down. It's to govern it properly, using frameworks such as ISO 42001 the same way financial controls have long supported reporting. Her conclusion lands squarely in familiar territory for Chartered Accountants: the organisations that succeed won't be the ones with the most advanced technology. They'll be the ones people trust most. Have your say in our global AI study Chartered Accountants Worldwide, working with our member institutes and Ipsos, has launched the second wave of a global study into how AI is reshaping the profession. Wave one gave us an initial picture. Wave two tracks how perspectives are shifting across traditional AI, generative AI and agentic AI. It takes about fifteen minutes to complete, every response is confidential, and results are only ever published in anonymised, aggregated form. The findings will directly shape strategy and leadership decisions across the global profession, so the accuracy of that picture depends on members taking part. Click here to launch the survey The hidden risks of remote working across borders A special edition of Difference Makers Discuss, recorded for our UAE community, tackled a scenario that plays out in offices everywhere: an employee asks to work from another country for a few weeks, and someone says yes without thinking it through. Host Carla Wilson was joined by international tax specialist Hugo van Zyl and HR leader Sarah Brooks to unpack what that yes can actually cost. The biggest misconception is that a visa decides tax status. It doesn't. Countries count days differently, and a UAE employment contract earning no personal income tax at home doesn't mean the income stays tax free abroad, particularly if part of the salary is recharged to a branch in the country the employee is working from. Then there's permanent establishment risk, where a business itself becomes taxable in another country. The usual trigger isn't a laptop in a hotel room. It's a senior person who habitually signs contracts on behalf of the employer while abroad, and the consequences can extend well past a single tax bill. The advice from both speakers was consistent: treat remote working as a governed exception, not a casual perk. Put a written policy in place, document approvals properly, and don't run the decision on WhatsApp. Governance is the thread running through all three stories this month. Whether it's AI, sustainability data or a request to work abroad for a few weeks, the organisations that come out ahead are the ones that can explain their decisions, not just make them quickly. Hear the full conversation on all three topics in Episode 49 of Chartered Accountants Global Update, available now.

  8. Jul 1

    Episode 48: AI and the future of the profession: Have your say in Wave 2

    AI and the future of the profession: Have your say in Wave 2 Chartered Accountants Worldwide, together with our member institutes and Ipsos, has launched the second wave of our global research study into how AI is reshaping the Chartered Accountancy profession. We need your input to make it count. What the study covers Building on Wave 1, this survey tracks how member perspectives are shifting across three areas of AI adoption: traditional AI, generative AI and agentic AI. The findings will shape strategy and leadership decisions across the global profession. Why it matters Your experience on the ground is what makes this research useful. It helps Chartered Accountants Worldwide and our member institutes build a coordinated, evidence based response to AI, rather than a guess. Take part The survey takes about 15 minutes. All responses are confidential and reported only in anonymised, aggregated form.

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About

Stay connected, informed, and inspired with Chartered Accountants Global Update, the official weekly audio newsletter from Chartered Accountants Worldwide. Each episode brings you the latest from our global community of over 1.8 million trusted professionals — from must-attend events and upcoming webinars to fresh insights and articles exploring the key issues shaping the accountancy profession today. Tune in for highlights on: Major conferences and networking opportunities around the world.Practical guidance on navigating challenges like burnout, upskilling for AI transformation, and building inclusive workplaces.In-depth explorations of how Chartered Accountants are leading change across technology, leadership, sustainability, and more.Wherever you are, take Chartered Accountants Worldwide with you — pop in your earbuds, grab your coffee, and get your global update on the go.

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  • Creator
    Chartered Accountants Worldwide
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    92
  • Rating
    Explicit
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    © 2026 Chartered Accountants Global Update
  • Show Website
    Chartered Accountants Global Update

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