AICPA Offers Spring Fraud and Risk Management Webinars

NEW YORK, March 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants will host a free series of Web seminars starting this week on "Fraud and Financial Risk Management" to help organizations detect and combat fraud and control financial risk. The AICPA "Infocasts" are being produced in conjunction with the Society of Management Accountants of Canada and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in the United Kingdom. The risk of fraud increases during economic crises and can affect any organization regardless of size, sector or location.

The Fraud and Risk Management Infocast schedule is as follows.

• Thurs., March 19, 2009: "Financial Risk Management: Tools and Techniques." Participants in the first session, presented by Margaret Woods, associate professor in accounting and finance, Nottingham Business School and Kevin Dowd, professor, from University of Nottingham, will be shown how to identify and quantify key risks to their own organization related to interest rates, credit quality, liquidity, commodity prices, foreign exchange rates, equity prices and an organization's access to financing. They will also learn to apply specific strategies and tools for managing these financial risks.
• Thurs. April 23, 2009: "Fraud Risk Management: It Can Happen to You!" Gillian Lees, a technical specialist at CIMA, and Helenne Doody, a specialist in innovation and development at CIMA, will cover the latest findings on fraud using case studies drawn from a range of organizations that have fallen victim to fraud. The program will focus on the context, extent and scale of the fraud problem and also the key components of anti-fraud strategy.
• Thurs., May 21, 2009: "Enterprise Risk Management: Rising Expectations." Mark Beasley, Ph.D., Deloitte Professor of enterprise risk management and director at the North Carolina State University College of Management, and Bonnie Hancock, executive director and lecturer at North Carolina State University College of Management will present the results of a recent survey of AICPA members serving as CFOs of their organizations about enterprise risk management. The session will focus on the effective launch of an ERM program and how to integrate ERM and strategic planning to ensure practices preserve and enhance stakeholder value.

The Web seminars are free, but pre-registration is required as space is limited. All Web seminars will run from 12:00 p.m.-1:15 p.m. EDT. CPE credit is available. Those interested should visit www.cpa2biz.com to register. AICPA members will be charged $34 for CPE credit; non-members will be charged $44.

All three Webinars may be accessed for one year at:

http://fmcenter.aicpa.org/Resources/Management+Accounting+Guidelines/

About the AICPA

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (www.aicpa.org) is the national, professional association of CPAs, with more than 350,000 CPA members in business and industry, public practice, government, education, student affiliates, and international associates. It sets ethical standards for the profession and U.S. auditing standards for audits of private companies, non-profit organizations, federal, state and local governments. It develops and grades the Uniform CPA Examination.

The AICPA maintains offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Durham, N.C., Ewing, and Lewisville, Tex.

Media representatives are invited to visit the AICPA Online Media Center at www.aicpa.org/mediacenter.

SOURCE American Institute of Certified Public Accountants