Transparency Report 2020

The KPMG International Transparency Report 2020 outlines how KPMG is delivering on its fundamental promise of audit quality to serve the public interest, investors, audit committees and other stakeholders.  

In a changing and increasingly complicated world, our role has never been more important. Audit is the foundation of the KPMG brand and is the backbone of our business.

Quality remains our top priority. We have an unwavering commitment to serve the public interest by leading the profession in audit quality.

COVID-19 is pushing us to think differently about how we engage our people, companies we audit, stakeholders and society. The increased economic uncertainty and risk due to the pandemic will have significant financial reporting implications throughout the world markets. We will continue to respond to and embrace this challenge as we focus on recovery and resilience in this new reality.

All our actions are guided by our Values. They drive our daily behaviors, guide our decisions, and shape our character. Integrity remains a core Value – we do what is right, in the right way, at the right time. We embody our Values of integrity and excellence in our commitment to quality.

Delivering quality audits requires a quality-centric culture where everyone is accountable for quality. Accountability starts at the top of our global organization, with every KPMG leader responsible for continually raising the bar for quality, integrity and public trust.

Building upon our sound audit quality foundations, we are making significant investments to drive consistency and quality across our global audit practices. We’ve committed to an ongoing investment in our system of quality management, global monitoring of audit quality, enhanced support, and providing innovative technology and tools for engagement teams, such as KPMG Clara, our smart audit platform.

Through KPMG Clara, we are integrating a new workflow and enhanced methodology along with powerful, web-based and cloud enabled technology to enhance the audit process and enable real-time engagement monitoring. With the increased reliance on a virtual environment, KPMG Clara is a key component of our technology enablement for the companies we audit and central to our efforts to enhance quality and consistency across the organization.

We recognize that continually improving our approach to audit quality relies on exceptional people having access to the right knowledge at the right time under the guidance of strong governance and practice management.

Our Global Board has implemented fundamental organizational changes to achieve greater levels of consistency and accountability across our global network. Our structure commits all KPMG firms to our common set of Values, standards and service quality expectations. 

At KPMG, we realize that extraordinary times require extraordinary solutions to complex challenges. We understand our responsibility to deliver quality audits that contribute to the integrity of financial reporting and are fundamental to the successful working of markets, giving investors the confidence and trust to make key decisions.

Consistently providing exceptional quality across all our audit engagements is at the heart of our commitment. Getting audit quality right each and every time is what we are focused on to fulfill our role to society, serve our markets and build public trust.

Our vision to lead the way in audit quality is clear.

We are taking action, we’re investing and we’re making it happen.