eng Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania Audit Financiar 18448801 2020-01-29 18 157 113 127 10.20869/AUDITF/2020/157/113 9629 article For the external audit to ensure the credibility of the financial statements, it is a mandatory and vital requirement to maintain the independence in audit engagements. In practice, when performing the audit engagements there are various threats to independence, such as the non-audit services, the financial dependence of the auditor on its client, and the familiarity between client and auditor. The risk they pose to independence may be diminished through the rotation policy of the partner and audit firm. The rotation (voluntary or compulsory of the partner or audit firm) generates, according to the professional literature, both advantages and disadvantages, the legal practices and regulations being different from one country to another. Although the Romanian legislation does not require the rotation within the audit engagements, we believe that adopting these practices is an indication of maintaining independence and conducting a quality audit. Starting from this aspect, our research aims at the rotation practices of the banking institutions operating on the Romanian market. The results show that most banks adopt their own rotation policy of the partner and audit firm. This research may be useful to interest-holders within the banking system, as well as to the regulatory bodies in Romania. http://revista.cafr.ro/temp/Article_9629.pdf external audit; independence; rotation of the audit partner; rotation of the audit firm; the banks from Romania eng Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania Audit Financiar 18448801 2020-01-29 18 157 128 144 10.20869/AUDITF/2020/157/128 9630 article Through their activity, financial auditors contribute to the investors` decision making, so that providing quality services leads to the increase of the confidence in the profession of financial auditor. In order to guarantee quality services of the statutory audit missions oversight bodies were created, which have the legal mission to verify the activity of the financial auditor. The purpose of this paper is to make a comparison of how the oversight bodies in countries of the European Union are regulated, their attributions, as well as the stage of the statutory audit reform in Romania, based on Directive 2014/56 / EU. The establishment of the oversight bodies was carried out as a result of poor-quality audit services, the oversight being necessary, but this activity could be the attribution of the professional bodies, if they had a greater coercive power over the members. Most irregularities arise as a result of non-compliance with all ethical principles, which is a challenge for every professional accountant. The institutional harmonization process is still ongoing, and the credibility of the oversight bodies can be confirmed in the medium and long term by the efficiency of the inspection actions on the financial auditors and by improving the quality of the audited financial reports. http://revista.cafr.ro/temp/Article_9630.pdf oversight body; audit reform; financial reporting; ethic; quality eng Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania Audit Financiar 18448801 2020-01-29 18 157 145 153 10.20869/AUDITF/2020/157/145 9631 article The accounting profession was considered a masculine one, due to the historical context, traditions and mentality at that certain point in time; currently the number of women that are in the profession has become overwhelming, making women a majority in some cases. However, in top management positions in big auditing companies, in professional bodies and in profession in general the gender balance is not in accordance with the high number of women. Through the present study the authors intend to analyze which are the factors that determine women from audit profession to open their own practices and to start an entrepreneurial activity on their own. http://revista.cafr.ro/temp/Article_9631.pdf entrepreneurship audit profession gender eng Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania Audit Financiar 18448801 2020-01-29 18 157 154 181 10.20869/AUDITF/2020/157/154 9632 article The relevance of the audit profession (in general) and the quality of the audit (in particular) in a rapidly changing business world, determines that practitioners, regulating authorities and academics should be informed about the recent technological developments that have the potential to disrupt the business ecosystems and, consequently, the audit ecosystem. The present paper strives to formulate an objective perception of reality in a rational, structured and positivist manner, trying to examine the current debates regarding the new digital age, to identify both the advantages and the weaknesses or the fundamental deficiencies of the elements of the Blockchain technology and, therefore, to provide a critical observation on how these changes would affect the soundness and effectiveness of audit reporting. Audit profession needs to embrace and "lean" toward both the opportunities and challenges generated by a large-scale adoption of Blockchain. Auditors are encouraged to monitor the evolution of Blockchain technology because they have the opportunity to evolve, learn and capitalize on the proven ability to adapt to the needs of a rapidly changing business world. Moving towards a 4.0/continuous audit/hybrid audit model that includes the Blockchain-type, intelligent Smart Audit Procedures will be able to improve the quality of audit, responding much better to the informational needs of the stakeholders. http://revista.cafr.ro/temp/Article_9632.pdf 4.0 financial audit; hybrid audit; digitalization; Blockchain; Big Data; Smart Audit Procedures; Smart Contracts; modified professional behaviours eng Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania Audit Financiar 18448801 2020-01-29 18 157 182 195 10.20869/AUDITF/2020/157/182 9633 article At the level of a regulated capital market, reporting a complete set of financial statements that includes quality financial information is the main user`s intention for strategic or operational decision making. Their decisions are influenced, among other things, by the independent and objective opinions of the audit profession, which ensures the fair representation, under the most significant aspects, of the financial position and performance. The major financial scandals have brought into question the role of the audit profession, as well as the adoption of new audit standards or methodologies that contribute to increasing the quality of audit missions and, implicitly, audit reports. Reporting in audit has seen many changes over time, the most recent being those relating to the inclusion of Key Audit Matters (KAM) as separate section in the auditor’s report. The purpose of this requirement is to increase the communicative value of the audit report by ensuring greater transparency to support stakeholders. In this context, it is of interest to what extent the audit reports of the entities listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange issued after the application of the new reporting requirements in audit ensure a higher communicative value and, implicitly, a higher quality of the financial audit missions. This study is based on the analysis of the mandatory audit reports related to the financial years that ended at the end of the years: 2016, 2017 and 2018 of the companies listed on the BSE on the main market, in order to highlight the quality of the financial audit missions as a result of the obligation that the auditors have to include in the published reports Key Audit Matters (KAM) in a separate section. http://revista.cafr.ro/temp/Article_9633.pdf audit quality; audit report; key audit matters (KAM); transparency in audit; communication value of the audit report eng Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania Audit Financiar 18448801 2020-01-29 18 157 196 208 10.20869/AUDITF/2020/157/196 9634 article This study aims to discuss the role of corporate reporting in contemporary society, characterized by dematerialization and digitalization, the increased importance of environmental and social aspects in business, and the need for (re)legitimizing actors participating in the production, auditing and publication of corporate information, with the multiplying forms of risk, uncertainty and globalization. The paper also sets out to discuss the extent to which the current corporate reporting model satisfies the needs of stakeholders and ensures a better functioning of markets and society. http://revista.cafr.ro/temp/Article_9634.pdf accounting profession; emerging information technologies; accounting for sustainability; corporate reporting; accounting research eng Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania Audit Financiar 18448801 2020-01-29 18 157 209 218 10.20869/AUDITF/2020/157/209 9635 article In the era of continuous transformation, financial statements have lost their relevance to investors. As a result, investors are requesting the publication of non-financial information in order to make wise decisions. The goal of this paper consists in showing the potential of the companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) to publish non-financial information through a separate report towards the annual report aimed at attracting investors and creating an international image. Thus, in order to achieve this goal, companies listed on BSE from different activity sectors were analyzed. The study revealed a tendency of the companies to imitate the best practices for drafting the reports. However, Romania is still facing the understanding of the new non-financial reporting concept. http://revista.cafr.ro/temp/Article_9635.pdf non-financial reporting; Romania; transparency; listed companies