Enhanced auditor reports off to promising start but risks need watching

SINGAPORE-LISTED companies have to guard against the risk that the new enhanced auditor reports that took effect about nine months ago may one day return to generic boilerplate language, according to professional services firm KPMG.

This warning comes even as the experience on enhanced auditor reports has been positive overall so far, with issued documents containing descriptive and entity-specific information.

For audit reports issued on or after Dec 15, 2016, the disclosure of so-called key audit matters (KAM) has become mandatory for listed companies.