Does Acra’s action against Miyoshi’s CEO signal a more proactive stance by the corporate regulator?

While scrolling through some local business news headlines earlier this month, I stumbled upon a report about the chief executive of Miyoshi having been fined S$22,400 by the state court after the company failed to recognise an impairment loss in its financial statements for the year to Aug 31, 2019.

This wasn’t a company that would ordinarily interest me – it’s a struggling metal components maker with a market capitalisation of less than S$5 million.

Yet, as my eyes glazed over and I started to scroll away, I noticed an interesting detail in the story: the problem came to light after the company’s financial statements were reviewed by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) under its Financial Reporting and Surveillance Programme (FRSP).