Governance

Our Purpose and Values guide everything we do.

For more than 150 years, we’ve inspired confidence while empowering change. Our purpose is rooted in rich history, built on our role to protect the public interest while shaping a better future for our people, clients and broader stakeholders. The pressures on business and society are rapidly increasing. With new challenges facing the world, our purpose is more relevant than ever.

At KPMG, we know that trust is earned by doing the right thing. To inspire confidence and empower change, we need to consider the economic, environmental and social impact of our activities, align our financial and societal performance as part of a shift toward stakeholder capitalism, and have strong governance in place to oversee all of our activities.

“We must be ready to see and respond to the business opportunities — not just the risks — presented by transforming businesses and communities to address ESG challenges. Without a healthy world, there is no sustainable business.“

Jane Lawrie
Global Head of Corporate Affairs
KPMG International

Purposeful business

We commit to always acting with a clear purpose, reflecting the meaningful work we do for our clients and our positive impact on society as a whole to sustainably grow our business. That’s how we believe we’ll achieve our ambition: to be the most trusted and trustworthy professional services organization.

We will continue to strive toward ESG as the watermark that runs through KPMG — empowering our people to become agents of purposeful change, leveraging our global talent to help clients and seeking to apply industry best practices throughout the global organization.

Our commitment: Always act with a clear purpose

Our Purpose

By inspiring confidence in our people, clients and society, we help empower the change needed to solve the toughest challenges and lead the way forward.

People

We are a people business.

Our people crave opportunities to do meaningful and impactful work while developing a thriving career in an inclusive, diverse and caring culture.

Clients

We stimulate trust and confidence in business.

Our clients seek our expertise to overcome vast challenges ahead and to grow sustainably.

Society

We have a responsibility to build a sustainable future.

Society expects a fairer, more equitable future that doesn’t come with such deep costs to people and our planet.

Our structure and governance

KPMG has strong governance for overseeing our activities, setting policies and aligning our strategy with our purpose. KPMG International Limited acts as the co-ordinating entity for the overall benefit of the KPMG global organization. Its governance bodies are composed of the Global Council, the Global Board, the Global Management Team (GMT) and Global Steering Groups.

Global Board: The Global Board is the principal governance and oversight body, currently consisting of 22 members from diverse jurisdictions that reflect KPMG’s global presence. Find out more about our Global Governance in our Global Transparency Report 2022.
Global Management Team: The Global Board has delegated certain responsibilities to the GMT. These responsibilities include developing the global strategy by working together with the Executive Committee of the Global Board, jointly recommending the global strategy to the Global Board for its approval and overseeing the activities of the Global Steering Groups. The GMT also supports KPMG firms in their execution of the global strategy and KPMG International decisions and policies, including holding them accountable to their commitments. The list of GMT members is available on the leadership section of our website.

Our Values and what we stand for

Our Values guide our day-to-day behaviors, informing how we act, the decisions we make and how we work with each other. They’re embedded in the entire employee journey, in our business processes and in all of our stakeholder interactions.

By living our Values and considering the impact of our work from a broad range of perspectives, we aim to be a purposeful business, fostering prosperity and helping address key issues faced by our clients and their stakeholders.

In 2022, KPMG in the UK conducted the first Values Week — designed to build better awareness and understanding of our Values, and to encourage our people to take greater ownership and accountability for living them. Each day focused on a different Value with a diverse line-up of guest speakers. The result was that the majority of the almost 12,000 participants reported that they believed that KPMG is committed to building a culture guided by our Values.

Our Values are:

Integrity: We do what is right.
Excellence: We never stop learning and improving.
Courage: We think and act boldly.
Together: We respect each other and draw strength from our differences.
For Better: We do what matters.

People of KPMG

Richard Boele
KPMG Australia

In 2022, I became KPMG Australia’s first Chief Purpose Officer (CPO) and the first among KPMG firms.

Having spent my early career working in and with businesses to identify and address human rights risks, I have always been profoundly aware of the impact organizations have on the world around them and the critical role they can play when combining purpose with profit.

As CPO, I’ve been given a mandate to make purpose the North Star that defines everything KPMG Australia does. I’m responsible for helping the Australian firm navigate toward that North Star.

I’m also a challenger. I sit on various committees, constructively challenging my colleagues to put purpose at the center of their decision-making and helping them to consider how their decisions sit alongside the commitments we made as a firm.

And the third part of my role is to enable. I work with partners across the Australian firm, as well as other KPMG firms, to help articulate their purpose and explore how that purpose nests with our global purpose. I also help them find ways to meaningfully act on it.

It’s exciting to be part of a business that puts purpose at the top of its strategy and is carving out new roles, like my own, that can help make its purposeful commitments a reality every day. I hope that the lessons and experiences I have in this role will help KPMG firms create structures that better drive our commitments and purpose.

Safia Mirza
KPMG in Canada

The opportunity KPMG gave me to attend the One Young World (OYW) Summit, a forum for young leaders to confront humanity’s biggest challenges, transformed my career and the impact I’ve had through it.

As a sponsor of OYW, KPMG sends delegates to the Summit each year. When I attended the Summit as a delegate from KPMG in the UK, I was blown away by how positive and inspirational the event was. Hearing other people my age talk about how they were embracing their purpose and the impact they had made me want to do the same.

Prior to the Summit, I had learned to code and created a six-week coding course. The course was designed to give disadvantaged people and those underrepresented in technology the opportunity to develop programming skills that employers value.

OYW pushed me to go even further, and I started delivering my course firstly with a charity (The Prince’s Trust) and later at a local university for women who would not otherwise have had access to equipment. I also widened access to the course by live-streaming it — a first for KPMG in the UK. The course has now been viewed by more than 17,000 people in over 30 countries and territories.

And, in January 2023, I helped launch a Code Ambassadors program in schools in areas of low mobility. By teaching schoolchildren how to code and giving them access to KPMG mentors and the skills to train others, I hope to create a ripple effect of learning.

I was also recently given the opportunity to make the move to KPMG in Canada, where I have continued to teach my course and expand the number of people I reach.

I’m proud to say that KPMG has not only supported me, but also enabled me, to achieve what I have. From support at the highest levels of leadership, to my manager helping me build my course, I feel lucky to work somewhere where I’m encouraged and empowered to turn big ideas into reality.

Marwa Mahmoud
KPMG in the Netherlands

When I joined KPMG in the Netherlands as a Climate Risk and Decarbonization Strategies Manager in September 2022 and told my manager that I wanted to attend the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) just two months later, the response was, “If you want it to happen, we will make it happen.”

And so, just weeks into my new role, I was flying to Egypt to work with a delegation of future leaders to help make KPMG’s contribution to COP27 a success. At COP, I was proud to have organized a series of events in collaboration with the Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency and secured access to the blue zone (the main negotiating zone) for me and two of my colleagues. I developed a presentation for a session on just energy transition where I introduced potential global strategies to transition to clean energy and coordinated a session that assessed the current state of the energy crisis, leveraging insights from recent KPMG thought leadership.

My experience at COP has provided me with unique insights into the interplay between policy and industry in tackling climate change and what it takes to help ensure a just transition of energy. I apply these insights as I help clients of KPMG in the Netherlands to decarbonize and assess their climate risks. It also gave me the opportunity to build an invaluable network of climate change contacts from across the globe.

As a new recruit, I thought that asking to go to COP27 was a long shot. Instead, I learned that at KPMG the sky is the limit, and I will be supported in endeavors that can leverage my expertise to help make a positive difference to the world around us.

Client confidentiality, information security and data privacy

The importance of maintaining client confidentiality is emphasized through a variety of mechanisms, including our Global Code of Conduct. We have policies that address information security, confidentiality, and data privacy. Member firms also provide their personnel with annual training on confidentiality, information protection and data privacy requirements.

Speaking up safely

KPMG has a detailed approach for monitoring and reporting any illegal or unethical acts. Our Global Code of Conduct and policies and procedures set out a clear process for anyone seeking advice or wanting to report illegal or unethical behavior, and we openly encourage a culture of speaking up without any fear of reprisal. We prohibit retaliatory behavior when our people report ethical issues, breaches or suspected breaches in good faith.

KPMG firms are required to establish, communicate and maintain clearly defined channels to allow KPMG people and third parties to make inquiries about, raise concerns in relation to, provide feedback on, and notify of reportable matters without fear of reprisal, in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

Supporting our speak-up culture, KPMG International has a hotline which is a mechanism for our people, KPMG firms’ clients and other third parties to confidentially report concerns they have relating to any activity by KPMG International, KPMG firms or KPMG people. This is in addition to other mechanisms that may exist within KPMG firms.

People of KPMG

Tamara Lajara
KPMG in the UK

I’m one of KPMG in the UK’s Ethics Champions.

Ethics Champions are a network of trusted colleagues at the UK firm who are trained about and will listen to concerns raised about unethical working practices or situations in which colleagues aren’t living our Values. We do this role alongside our day jobs and this network exists alongside our other speak-up reporting channels. Any reports we take are escalated to colleagues who will look into the matter and decide on appropriate steps to be taken.

Ethics isn’t always clear-cut, and it can be difficult to work out what the right course of action is on your own. So my job as an Ethics Champion is to listen to colleagues — in a safe space and without judgment — and help them to get the support they need.

As an Ethics Champion, I wear a differently colored lanyard so I can be easily identified by my colleagues in the office.

Our network is made up of colleagues at manager grades who work in different parts of the UK firm so you can always find someone you are comfortable speaking with.

Becoming an Ethics Champion gave me first-hand insight into the importance KPMG places on walking the talk when it comes to its commitments and Values. From the regular training I’m receiving, through to the support and flexibility I get from leadership to do this role, acting ethically is at the heart of what KPMG is.

Focusing on audit and assurance quality

Our commitment: Lead the profession in audit quality

Quality and integrity are the foundations that strengthen trust in the companies and stakeholders we serve. Audit quality is fundamental and is a key measure on which our professional reputation stands. We’re committed to ensuring our approach to audit quality evolves as the audit itself continues to be reshaped with new technologies and methods that can create a better experience for clients and our teams.

Across our global organization, we’ve strengthened the consistency and robustness of our system of quality management that enables compliance with the International Standard on Quality Management (ISQM 1), issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB), which took effect on 15 December 2022. We consider this to be a transformational and fundamental change for KPMG firms. Find out more about our relentless focus on quality in our Global Transparency Report 2022.

Our role in ESG assurance: KPMG is committed to fulfilling our public interest role in providing robust assurance that can benefit investors and other stakeholders. We believe the same level of professionalism, quality, consistency and trust should apply to ESG disclosures as to financial data. That’s why KPMG firms are making significant investments in putting ESG at the heart of the organization. During 2022, as part of our commitments to meeting both the public interest and market demands, a Global Head of ESG Assurance was appointed, an online sustainability reporting resource center was launched and guidance was provided on the financial reporting impacts of climate change.

People of KPMG

Marc van Meel
KPMG in the Netherlands

As technology evolves, it’s critical that it’s aligned with human values.

We have a responsibility to shape a world that is free from invasions of privacy, discrimination against minority groups, the tarnishing of reputations and breaches of autonomy. All of this means that the development of ethical artificial intelligence (AI) has become much more than a nice-to-have. It’s a vital part of business and society.

As part of the “AI in Control team” at KPMG in the Netherlands, I work with governments and businesses to help integrate ethics into the development and deployment of their algorithms.

But it’s also important for me to talk to as wide an audience as possible to help all the stakeholders in our future world — including business leaders, technology professionals and the public who use services and products driven by AI — understand the issues at play.

KPMG in the Netherlands has given me the support and bandwidth to do this. The firm has supported my commitments publishing, teaching and speaking on the topic of trustworthy and ethical AI. Most notably, I was given the time and flexibility to attend PyData in the Netherlands, a conference for data science professionals, as a keynote speaker.

Acting transparently with integrity and accountability

Our commitments:

Act lawfully, ethically and in the public interest
Work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery

We’re committed to the highest standards of personal and professional behavior in everything we do.

The KPMG Global Code of Conduct (the Code) outlines our ethical principles and expectations as to how all KPMG people treat each other, our clients and the public. It demonstrates how our Purpose and Values inspire and guide all of our behaviors and actions. It defines what it means to work at and be part of KPMG, as well as our individual and collective responsibilities. We regularly review our Code to make sure it’s a clear reflection of these principles and expectations. In addition, all of our people are required to confirm their understanding of, and compliance with, the Code upon joining KPMG and thereafter on an annual basis.

Consistent with being signatories to the UN Global Compact, we work against corruption in all of its forms, including extortion and bribery. The Code clearly states that we don’t tolerate illegal or unethical behavior within KPMG or from clients, suppliers or public officials with whom we work. Bribery and corruption are unethical, even in situations where it might not be considered illegal in a particular jurisdiction.

All KPMG firms are required to have processes to assess prospective clients, third parties and suppliers in relation to bribery and corruption. Firms must also assess their bribery and corruption environment annually and establish and maintain processes to monitor, manage and control how their personnel and their agents interact with government entities and government officials so as to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations and to maintain public trust. Find out more about our position on bribery and corruption.

We take seriously any incidents that are inconsistent with our Values or in breach of the Code. As an industry we must have the highest standards of integrity. In FY22, news emerged of employees in a small number of KPMG firms sharing answers in training. KPMG takes incidents like this extremely seriously and our member firms hold our people accountable for any behavior of this kind. Our member firms learn from these incidents and have taken steps to strengthen their controls, policies and ethical culture, including leveraging technology. We have also enhanced our mandatory ethics and integrity training which all KPMG people complete annually. KPMG is committed to taking all necessary actions aimed at preventing incidents like this in the future.

Additionally, KPMG firms and professional accountants are bound by the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, including International Independence Standards issued by the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA). These standards are in alignment with KPMG’s ethical principles and expectations.

Integrity training completion: KPMG firms provide regular mandatory training to partners and employees on a range of topics, including the Code and our anti-corruption policies and procedures.

Human rights

Respecting human rights

Our commitment: Respect human rights

KPMG International is committed to respecting human rights, as outlined in our Business and Human Rights Statement, which is in line with the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and builds on our longstanding support for the UN Global Compact. This means supporting the protection of human rights, avoiding being complicit in human rights abuses (including those involving business relationships) and helping to eliminate all forms of forced, compulsory and child labor.

While the professional services industry is not typically considered a high-risk sector for labor-related breaches, we recognize we have an important role to play in managing potential harm to people through a risk-based approach to human rights due diligence.

Ethical behavior is of utmost importance to us, as reflected in our Business and Human Rights Statement. Additionally, our Global Code of Conduct articulates our zero tolerance for behavior that is illegal, unethical or breaches human rights — within both our global organization and our suppliers.

Addressing modern slavery risks

Since our last report in 2022, we continued with our efforts to further embed modern slavery considerations in our business operations and supply chains, both at the global and member firm level. A number of KPMG firms are also assisting their clients in assessing and addressing the risks of modern slavery in their operations given the demand for greater transparency on how businesses are dealing with it.

At the global level, we take a proactive approach to effectively address and manage these issues:

We remain focused on our supply chain. We’re reviewing the results of self-assessment surveys we sent to all suppliers contracted using our global procurement process, which represent a majority of our third-party suppliers. The purpose of these surveys is to further understand risks in our downstream supply chain and how we might mitigate and address them.
We’ve revised our supplier code of conduct, which requires our suppliers who have adopted it to meet the same standards and practices as ours in relation to eradicating modern slavery and human trafficking. Our supplier code of conduct also requires our suppliers who have adopted it to provide us with assistance to expose and address modern slavery risks, including, for example, responding to due diligence questionnaires and providing us with information required to remediate those risks.
Members of our senior leadership, our procurement professionals, commercial contracting and procurement lawyers, and other professionals attended a modern slavery training workshop in order to understand our efforts in addressing modern slavery and to raise awareness of key risks.
Our KPMG International hotline allows for reporting of concerns regarding modern slavery. To date, the hotline has not received any substantiated modern slavery complaints.

Case study

Assessing modern slavery risks,

KPMG Australia

Modern slavery is a complex global problem and cannot be dealt with through a set-and-forget process. It takes rigor, resources, time and commitment from senior leadership and throughout an organization.

KPMG Australia is going beyond regulatory requirements to lead the way in its response to modern slavery and human rights.

The Australian firm has a human rights working group which is chaired by its Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer and Chief Risk Officer and works closely with a dedicated Human Rights Manager to implement a comprehensive multi-year modern slavery response.

KPMG Australia assesses modern slavery risk in all prospective clients and suppliers and engages proactively with high-risk organizations to address issues rather than walk away from them.

It has made a human rights and modern slavery e-learning module available to all staff and mandatory for people in specific roles. This complements ongoing engagement with risk, procurement and client-facing teams to help manage modern slavery risks in their own work.

KPMG Australia has also developed a Modern Slavery Measurement and Evaluation Framework, which assesses the impact of its efforts every six months, helping to drive meaningful change.

Collaboration is crucial to making sustained progress in respecting human rights. Recognizing this, the Australian firm shares lessons from its modern slavery response with peers through forums, including the UN Global Compact Network Australia, and works with other member firms in the Asia Pacific region to apply leading practices and learnings to their own operations.

Everything the Australian firm does is backed by the expertise of KPMG Banarra, a dedicated business and human rights consultancy based in KPMG Australia.

^{Our Impact Plan represents the collective environmental, social and governance commitments of independent KPMG firms, affiliated with KPMG International Limited. The data represented in Our Impact Plan is aggregated data from KPMG firms for the 12 months to 30 September 2021 unless stated otherwise. KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee and does not provide services to clients. Where the terms “KPMG,” “firm,” “we” or similar references are used without definition, they are intended to refer to KPMG International Limited and the independent KPMG firms.}

^{The financial information set forth represents combined information of the independent KPMG member firms that perform professional services for clients, affiliated with KPMG International Limited. The information is combined here solely for presentation purposes. KPMG International Limited performs no services for clients nor, concomitantly, generates any client revenue.}

^{Throughout this webpage, “we”, “KPMG”, “us” and “our” refers to the global organization or to one or more of the member firms of KPMG International Limited (“KPMG International”), each of which is a separate legal entity.}

Governance

Our commitments

Purposeful business

People of KPMG

People of KPMG

People of KPMG

Acting transparently with integrity and accountability

Human rights

Case study

Download KPMG: Our Impact Plan