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From February 18 to March 17, 2021, Tapestry Networks convened six virtual meetings with the audit committee chairs of more than 100 large US public companies to discuss finance function transformation. Network members were joined for these conversations by senior leaders and subject matter experts from EY. In addition, the following executives participated in individual sessions: Patrick Day of FMC, Dan Durn and Junaid Ahmed of Applied Materials, and Yang Xu of Kraft Heinz.

The ViewPoints synthesizes discussions about four key topics that emerged in the meetings:

• The purpose of change in the finance function

• Enabling change through process and technology enhancement

• Talent as a critical element of transformation

• Collaboration with key stakeholders

The annual Financial Services Leadership Summit (FSLS) took place across a series of video discussions Tuesday, November 10, 2020 through Thursday, November 12, 2020. The FSLS brought together directors and senior executives from among the largest banks and insurers globally with regulators and other stakeholders and subject matter experts for discussions on the forces shaping the sector and the implications for financial institution leadership and governance.

• Navigating the increasingly important and complex ESG agenda. The ESG agenda has emerged from 2020 as more important and more complex than ever, presenting leaders of large financial institutions with both difficult challenges and significant opportunities. Banking and Insurance directors and executives were joined by Sandra Boss, Global Head of Investment Stewardship at BlackRock, as well as regulators and other key stakeholders.

• Technology is driving competitive advantage in financial services. Financial institution directors and executives, regulators, investors, and EY experts discussed how financial institutions have adapted to the pandemic and the options for firms as they accelerate broader systems upgrades to support new approaches. They also discussed the implications that the path forward has for talent and culture needs.
  

• Global financial services policy after the pandemic. At the summit, participants were joined for a discussion on policy and politics by Martin Chorzempa, research fellow at the Peterson Institute; Clay Lowery, executive vice president of research and policy at the Institute of International Finance; and John Liver and Marc Saidenberg, EY’s Global Financial Services Regulatory Network co-leaders.

The COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges and risks during a time of swift change on many fronts. In September 2020, audit chairs from North America and Europe met in a virtual Audit Committee Leadership Summit (ACLS) to consider many of these changes: in risk management, technological innovation, and matters of internal and external audit. Key sessions addressed the following issues:

• The COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impact are once again raising questions about the state of enterprise risk management in large global companies. Members were joined by Amy Brachio, global business consulting leader at EY, and Panu Haapaniemi, director of risk management at UPM-Kymmene, to discuss potential lessons from the pandemic. 

• The COVID-19 pandemic has driven rapid innovation as businesses race to adapt to a difficult environment. Members discussed this acceleration and the related strategy and risk implications with Netta Nyholm, EMEIA enterprise risk and risk markets leader at EY; Kate Smaje, global leader at McKinsey Digital; and David Gledhill, recently group chief information officer and head of group technology and operations at DBS. 

• Internal audit departments are evolving with changing business practices. Technology plays a major role in those changes. Members discussed the outlook for internal audit processes, deployment, and technology with Rui Bastos, chief information officer and chief digital officer for Reliance Industries Hydrocarbons and head of group audit and risk management for the Reliance Group; Dr. Leo Mackay, senior vice president, ethics and enterprise assurance for Lockheed Martin; Amy Brachio, EY partner and the firm’s global business consulting leader; and Stefan Heissner, EY EMEIA forensics and integrity services leader.