Representatives of MIA and Extol pose for a group photo at the official launch of the EBC Platform.
KUCHING: The Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) and Extol Corporation Sdn Bhd (Extol), a wholly-owned subsidiary of AppAsia Bhd, officially launched the industry-wide Electronic Bank Confirmation (EBC) Platform (eConfirm.my).
In his welcome remarks, MIA president Huang Shze Jiun noted that the eConfirm.my marks another significant milestone for MIA on its mission to continuously improve the current bank confirmation process, which in turn advances MIA’s digital transformation agenda for nation building and delivers significant benefits for stakeholders such as auditors, banks, reporting entities and the capital market as a whole.
In her presentation on the EBC platform, MIA CEO Dr Nurmazilah Dato Mahzan explained MIA’s commitment to advocating for digital technology that drives audit efficiency and effectiveness.
“The traditional process (of bank confirmations) is slow and time-consuming. Any delays affect clearance by auditors and could impact the timely approval of financial statements by the Board of Directors,” she said.
AppAsia chairman Datuk Wira Rahadian Mahmud concurred: “The capital market benefits from reduced delays in clearance of audited financial statements. It also mitigates the risk of confidential information being wrongly sent to other parties through postal services”.
In his remarks, AppAsia and Extol Corporation executive director Calvert Wong extolled the “collaborative efforts” that drove the successful launch of the eConfirm.my and thanked MIA as well as all participating banks and audit firms for their positive response and assistance.
He emphasised: “This is a unique homegrown product with the first-of-its-kind end-to-end encryption technology, a key factor that ensures top level security and protection.”
Some of the key benefits of the EBC platform is, by replacing the manual paper-based confirmation process with secure electronic confirmation processes, the platform offers several significant benefits for auditors, audit clients, banks and the capital market including achieving greater efficiency and savings, eliminnating duplications and loss of confirmations, and expedites confirmation replies to the auditors.
It also mitigates the risk of confidential information being wrongly sent to other parties through postal services, enhances accountability and traceability because the system is able to trail the confirmation status at any point in time, expedites confirmation and reduces delays in clearance of audited financial statements which benefits the capital market and enhances compliance with approved standards on auditing, financial reporting deadlines and practice review requirements.
The EBC platform also helps reduce the risk of fraud which may potentially go undetected by auditors whilst protecting the interest of stakeholders that rely on audited financial statements while supporting protocols for health and wellness in the Covid-19 new normal, as the EBC platform minimises human contact and promotes social distancing through a technology platform.
“Looking ahead, we will continue to engage with the participating auditors and banks in order to materialise the idea of an industry-wide electronic bank confirmation platform. Engaging the audit clients will also be particularly critical to scale up adoption,” said Huang.
To date, 350 audit firms and seven banks have signed up to the EBC Platform and MIA is confident that many more will join once the eConfirm.my gains momentum.