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Personal Independence at Deloitte Tohmatsu Group
This page provides a brief summary of Personal Independence that Deloitte Tohmatsu Group Partners, Professional Staff and their Immediate Family Members are required to maintain. We kindly ask that you deepen your understanding of Personal Independence and cooperate in adhering to the laws and regulations regarding independence.
Explore Content
- Personal independence rules at Deloitte Tohmatsu Group
- Financial relationships
- Employment or other relationship
- Application Systems for complying with laws and regulations of independence
- Dear family members,
Personal independence rules at Deloitte Tohmatsu Group
What is independence?
Independence means to remain in a independent position both of mind and in appearance and objectivity are exercised with respect to Audit Clients and their group companies (hereinafter referred to as the "Audit Clients").
Who has to maintain independence?
Independence laws and regulations require Deloitte Tohmatsu Group Partners and Professional Staff, and their Immediate Family Members *1.
In the Deloitte Tohmatsu Group, Professional Staff refers to those who provide any professional services to clients regardless whether which is audit service or not.
*1 Specifically, Immediate Family Members are:
ⅰ Spouse or spousal equivalent (partners of the same gender or partners not legally married may be included)
ⅱ Dependents (whether living together or not)
If Immediate Family Members or Close Family Members *2 manage entities as a sole proprietorship, independence rules are applied to such entities.
*2 Close Family Members refers to a parent, child or sibling who is not an Immediate Family Member. Depending on the applicable independence laws and regulations, step-parents and step-children may be included in this term.
What is personal independence?
Independence that Deloitte Tohmatsu Group Partners and Professional Staff, and their Immediate Family Members should maintain is called personal independence.
In order to maintain personal independence, there may be restrictions on having the following relationships with the Audit Clients:
- Financial relationships
- Employment or other relationships
Financial relationships
What are financial relationships in personal independence?
Deloitte Tohmatsu Group establishes an independence policy about financial relationships to comply with laws and regulations regarding personal independence.
The main independence policy about financial relationships of Deloitte Tohmatsu Group is as follows:
Employment or other relationship
Employment of Immediate Family Members and Close Family Members
An Immediate Family Member or Close Family Mymber of a Partner or Professional staff member may be a director or officer of an Audit Client, or may have an accounting or financial reporting oversight role.
In such cases, the Partner or Professional Staff may be removed from the engagement team since providing services to the Audit Client where an Immediate Family Member or Close Family Member works may raise independence issues.
Application Systems for complying with laws and regulations of independence
Deloitte Tohmatsu Group uses the following internal systems to prevent any violations of independence rules.
What is DESC (Deloitte Entity Search and Compliance System)?
This is a system for searching for Audit Clients of the Deloitte Tohmatsu Group which require independence. Partners and Professional Staff of Deloitte Tohmatsu Group can use DESC to identify whether a particular company is as an Audit Client and applicable independence policies.
What is GIMS (Global Independence Monitoring System)?
This is a system in which Partners and Professional Staff of Deloitte Tohmatsu Group report accounts and financial instruments held by them and their Immediate Family Members.Partners and Professional Staff can use GIMS to confirm whether an account or financial instruments is relevant to an Audit Client. If the registered accounts or financial instruments become prohibited, an alert is automatically delivered.
Dear family members,
The cooperation of family members of Partners and Professional Staff is essential for Deloitte Tohmatsu Group to comply with the independence laws and regulations.
Before opening an account or trading financial instruments, please contact a Partner or Professional Staff to confirm whether it is permissible under the Deloitte Tohmatsu Group's independence policy.
In addition, after opening an account and acquiring financial instruments such as stocks, mutual funds, bonds, etc., they are required to be registered in GIMS immediately. It would be appreciated if you could share information with Partners or Professional Staff as appropriate to ensure that information registered in GIMS is always accurate, current and comprehensive.
Also please share information about other financial relationships, employment relationships and other relationships with Partner or Professional Staff as appropriate.
The information you provide will be strictly managed in accordance with the Group's policy and management rules regarding the protection of personal information.
[Reference]
This video explains the independence policy of Deloitte Tohmatsu Group regarding financial relationships among personal independence.