Editor's note

Issue 638 • October 2022

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Whilst the Ukrainians try to take the fight to Russia militarily, markets are gearing themselves for a potentially tumultuous winter, with significant concerns in Europe about the cost and availability of fuel. Several countries, including Germany and the UK, are warning of the potential for phased blackouts which will impact industrial production and, possibly, households.

In the meantime, the UK has seen the Bank of England raise interest rates twice in quick succession as well as an intervention to protect pension funds threatened by a volatile gilts market. Further fallout from Kwasi Kwarteng’s extraordinary “mini-budget” led to the IMF publicly stating that the measures announced were completely out of step with the other G7 nations and could lead to the UK being driven into a sustained and deep recession, squarely at odds with Liz Truss’s stated aim of encouraging growth. Kwarteng’s budget was short lived and lead to his swift departure, with a reimagined budget by the newly instated UK Chancellor, Jermey Hunt. Suffice it to say, that the architect of this bungled attempt at reform, Liz Truss resigned as Prime Minister on Thursday 20th October, 2022.

The Accountancy industry will need to be prepared to deal with the consequences, as much as anyone else, with the prospect of clients facing such uncertainty. Although corporate tax increases have been scrapped in the UK, the rising cost of inputs, especially energy charges, could send many companies, especially SMEs to the wall. Depending on how severe the coming winter months are, the same issues can, and probably will, affect many economies across the globe.

In this issue, do read my interview with RSM’s newly appointed Chief Culture and Transformation Officer, Dr Robert Coles about leading change transformation and what it takes to get stakeholder buy-in; Russell Gammon, Chief Solutions Officer at Tax Systems discusses the intricacies behind partial exemption for VAT compliance creating challenges for digitisation; Daxin Global’s COO Hong Yue discusses serving international clients with improvements in providing due diligence services across jurisdictions; Simon Leck of FibreCRM identifies pitfalls firms face with client-onboarding; an expert from FloGas highlights the world’s most environmentally conscious countries; Victor Basta, Co-Head, DAI Magister comments on the reasons the market is heating up for M&As; and Legal Director of Digital Law and Compliance, Amanda Israel Fraga of Russell Bedford, Brazil explains the impact of 2013 anti-corruption laws providing governance over accountability for any harm caused to national or foreign public administration. There is also an Op-Ed by Christian Lanng, CEO and co-founder, Tradeshift advising on how to brace for a recession.

Do also review ranking reports and tables on Argentina and Mexico and further tables for Peru. In addition, there is the usual round up of industry news.

Zoya Malik
Editor-in-Chief