Non-financial assurance

Providing assurance over ESG, regulatory, third party and other non-financial reporting

Today organisations are being judged on more than just financial performance. Information on ESG, regulation and technology play an important role helping stakeholders understand full enterprise value.

Corporate reporting is the first port of call for many stakeholders. This means non-financial reporting needs to be relevant, reliable and trusted. Stakeholders expect the same level of comfort as financial statements.

With formal assurance, you can demonstrate that you meet the standards you say you do, ensuring that investors, regulators and customers can trust your reporting.

“Once seen as a nice to have, non-financial reporting is now driving access to capital and cost of funding, reputation with customers, suppliers and society, attraction and retention of talent and ultimately enterprise value. Reporting must be transparent, stand up to scrutiny from all stakeholders and be trusted.”

Paolo Taurae, Non-financial Assurance Leader, PwC United Kingdom

ESG assurance

We combine ESG subject matter expertise with deep audit know-how to deliver robust assurance outcomes. The rapid development in new reporting requirements, combined with challenges in obtaining the right data are real but addressable. Our assurance opinion confirms whether or not ESG reporting is robust and fit for purpose.

We provide challenge and scrutiny over a growing array of ESG measures:

Sustainability and carbon reporting. Making sure that your report stands up to rigorous scrutiny. This is about more than just data - it’s about challenging the measures and context you’re using to tell the story of your progress and ensuring compliance with the relevant reporting standards.
Diversity and inclusion reporting. From reporting on gender pay to equal employment opportunities, your stakeholders expect you to be creating an equitable, inclusive and progressive workplace. We’ll make sure you can stand behind this information.
Social impact reporting. Providing assurance over how companies are measuring the positive impacts their actions are having on society.
Supply chain management reporting. Providing assurance that you understand and control your supply chains. From Health and Safety data to waste and water usage.
Green, social and sustainable financing. Checking that investors funds are deployed in the manner intended.
Corporate governance. Making sure you have adequate processes and controls over the governance considerations that matter most to your stakeholders - and that those processes and controls are working as intended.

Third-party assurance

Service Providers are judged on more than just the services they provide. Customers are exposed to a broader set of risks such as IT resilience, cyber attacks, data loss, ethical sourcing, potential use of slave labour, and compliance. Customers are demanding greater transparency on how service providers are managing these risks.

We have deep experience in providing assurance over control reports covering the full range of service provider needs. Our assurance is rigorous and focused and is designed to enhance customers confidence in the reporting from Service providers.

We provide assurance and reporting for:

Financial services businesses, from assuring platforms for asset and wealth management, clearing, settlement and exchange, to performing SOC1, SOC2, ISAE3402 or AAF reviews.
IT systems and platforms, including assurance over market infrastructure, eCommerce, fulfilment and logistics platforms.
Critical business systems, such as payment infrastructure and payroll systems.
Cyber security systems, assuring resilience, privacy and security controls.
Emerging risks, such as blockchain assurance and cryptocurrency.
Supply chain, covering service levels, sustainability and regulatory/legal commitments.

Regulatory assurance

Demonstrating to regulators that you take your obligations seriously, gives you the room to focus on running your business without the disruption, cost and reputational impact of an investigation.

Opening your organisation to the scrutiny and rigour of external assurance, ensures you haven’t just complied with your obligations; it demonstrates transparency and the confidence that you can be trusted.

Our assurance teams provide the rigour and robustness of a PwC audit. Our assurance combines regulatory specialists’ knowledge, and experience of what regulators require, with deep auditing skills. We can provide assurance over all regulated activities, including:

Client assets and money. If you’re an authorised investment firm, we’ll scrutinise the processes and controls that you operate to ensure you’re adequately segregating your clients’ funds from your own.
Benchmarks and indices. Testing your policies, processes and controls to make sure you produce your indices transparently and in accordance with your methodologies; avoid conflicts of interest; and play your part in protecting customers and investors.
Safeguarding. If you’re an authorised payment institution (PI) or an electronic money institution (EMI), we’ll scrutinise your ability to protect your customers’ funds.
Prudential reporting. Risk-weighted assets (RWA) Assurance. Scrutinising the reporting you provide to regulators, so they can have confidence that you’re compliant with prudential requirements.
Data privacy. Subjecting your processes and controls to rigorous testing, so regulators can be confident that you adequately control and protect personal data and sensitive information.

AI assurance

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are transforming industries by introducing new capabilities and driving efficiencies. The transformative impact of AI will present opportunities to revolutionise industries and businesses by automating complex processes, enhancing decision-making with advanced data analytics, and driving unprecedented levels of innovation and efficiency. However, the full potential of these opportunities can only be realised if building trust is considered and managed from the outset.

Naturally, these advancements come with challenges in managing the increased exposure to legal, regulatory, operational, and financial reporting risks. As businesses replace traditional algorithms with complex AI systems, redefining fraud detection, customer interactions, and much more, the risk landscape will continue to evolve.

Our traditional AI assurance services have been based around enhancing trust and transparency of management’s controls over models and systems. However, Generative AI assurance will go further and ensure robust independent challenge of the controls over Generative AI data, modelling and validation. Leveraging our extensive industry experience and cross-sector insights, we have developed our Responsible AI Framework to provide clarity over the governance and management of risks arising from AI.

Regardless of where organisations are on their AI journey, strong governance will be integral to the control framework. Our Responsible AI Framework enables organisations to challenge themselves as to whether they are addressing the right risks, through a series of key questions, such as:

Are you prepared for the regulatory requirements associated with the implementation and use of AI?
What risk management practices are in place to address the inherent risks of AI, such as hallucination, bias, and transparency?
Have you considered the integrity of the data used by AI models?

AI development is accelerating, and adopting the right governance and risk management is crucial. Contact us today to explore how our Responsible AI Framework can empower your AI initiatives and strengthen trust with your stakeholders through AI assurance. Let’s innovate responsibly together.

Emerging Assurance

As new and emerging business areas demand scrutiny, we can build the assurance models to effectively scrutinise and challenge the data, metrics and controls you’ve established. When these areas need specific expertise - from blockchain to cybersecurity to social impact to emissions and offsets - we call on subject-matter experts from across PwC who bring industry or technical knowledge to help us design the right assurance approach.