Fraud and the future of ethical finance

Join ACCA for this special discussion event held as part of the Edinburgh Festival of Finance.

Fraud is often framed as a technical or compliance issue. This session, sponsored by global accountancy body ACCA, argues it is something deeper: a visible symptom of ethical, cultural and governance weakness within financial systems.

Drawing on ACCA’s research and the Risk Culture Series, Rachael Johnson will explore how AI, complexity, weak accountability and information overload are reshaping fraud risk. Through themes such as compliance theatre, the triage trap and escalation asymmetry, the session shows why fraud is one of the clearest practical tests of whether ethical finance is real or rhetorical.

Joining the session, Vera Cherepanova will bring a complementary governance and ethics lens, drawing on her work on how boards oversee ethics and the critical question of . Together, the session will explore not only how fraud emerges, but what it reveals about board effectiveness, ethical leadership and accountability at the highest level.

The discussion will connect fraud, risk culture and ethics to the practical realities faced by boards, investors and governance professionals and what must change to move from compliance frameworks to genuine ethical infrastructure. Central to this is the role of curiosity – how to operationalise it, professional scepticism and the courage to ask better questions – how to challenge assumptions, interrogate what is not being said, and create the conditions where difficult issues are surfaced early rather than explained away.

Join us for a thought-provoking session combining insight, challenge and practical reflection for professionals navigating today’s complex geopolitical and economic environment.

Our speakers:

Rachael Johnson, Global Head of Risk Management and Corporate Governance – Professional Insights, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)Author of Author and Host of ACCA’s Risk Culture Series – reports, podcasts and vodcasts

Vera Cherepanova, Executive Director and Board Member, Boards of the Future, Chair of ACCA’s Global Forum for Governance, Risk and Performance

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Host or Publisher Association of Chartered Certified Accountants