In January 2004, PwC Australia was appointed to investigate and report on unauthorised foreign currency options trading at Australia’s largest financial services company, the National Australia Bank (NAB). The events under investigation had resulted in losses amounting to A$360 million.
The investigation has been acknowledged as an outstanding example of forensic accounting and widely recognised for its best-practice approach to risk management, governance and corporate reporting.
The PwC team worked closely with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), as part of its investigation. The subsequent report, which the NAB publicly released on 12 March 2004, identified a range of process and control issues and cultural factors that contributed to the unauthorised foreign exchange options trading.
In August 2004, CFO magazine named PwC Australia Audit Firm of the Year, partly because of its investigation and report.
“Another reason for [PwC Australia’s] high score in the minds of business people this year was its report on the foreign currency options trading at the NAB, which exposed cultural problems within the bank which the NAB chief executive, John Stewart, has been trying to rectify,” said CFO.
