In Conversation with Pauline Wallace: Five years as UKEB Chair
Published: 2 September 2025
7 minute read
Kate O'Neill, Director of Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Affairs, sits down with Pauline Wallace, Chair of the UK Endorsement Board, as she prepares to step down on 10 September after 5 years leading the UKEB. Pauline has seen the UKEB grow from its conception to the influential organisation that we see today, and in this podcast she reflects on major achievements and why the UKEB is critical to the UK’s financial reporting environment.
Transcript
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:28:00
Kate O'Neill
Hello there and welcome to the FRC In Conversation podcast. My name is Kate O'Neill. I'm the Director of Stakeholder engagement and Corporate affairs here at the FRC. And today I'm joined by Pauline Wallace, the chair of the UK Endorsement Board. Welcome, Pauline.
00:00:28:02 - 00:00:29:00
Pauline Wallace
Thank you for inviting me, Kate.
00:00:29:00 - 00:00:51:06
Kate O'Neill
And Pauline, I have to say, personally, it's a sad podcast because this marks the end of your five years as the chair of the UKEB, and it's concluding this September and it marks the end of five years of leadership. And you've seen the UKEB grow from its conception through the influential organization that we see today.
00:00:51:12 - 00:00:59:04
Kate O'Neill
So having been at the UKEB since it was established, what initially motivated you to accept the role?
00:00:59:06 - 00:01:22:06
Pauline Wallace
That's a very interesting question. Actually. It was probably the perfect role for me. I'd been involved in pretty much all my professional career with international accounting standards or UK accounting standards. Before that, I started as a standard setter and subsequently as a technical partner. So to me, international accounting standards has always been really important, but it was also an opportunity to do something new.
00:01:22:08 - 00:01:41:23
Pauline Wallace
I don't think many people would turn down the opportunity to do something new at the end of their career, and particularly in this case, I was passionate about international accounting standards and the UK's role in developing them. And I thought it was really important that post-Brexit, we had the opportunity to make our mark in the world again from an accounting perspective.
00:01:42:00 - 00:01:46:07
Pauline Wallace
So this was definitely too good to miss as far as I was concerned.
00:01:46:09 - 00:02:03:21
Kate O'Neill
Absolutely. And international standards setting is very interesting. So I'm not sure all our listeners understand the critical role that the UK plays in that standard setting environment. So why is the UKEB critical to the UK's financial reporting environment?
00:02:03:23 - 00:02:34:24
Pauline Wallace
First and foremost, all groups have listed equity or debt in the UK. And that includes all the largest UK companies are required to apply international accounting standards and indeed other companies have the option to use them. And I think about 14,000, something like that actually choose to do so. So it's really important, given the UK's role in the global capital markets and the importance of these companies domestically, that UK has the right to a voice in their development and the ability to influence the way they represent the activities.
00:02:35:01 - 00:02:52:12
Kate O'Neill
Absolutely. I mean that international capital markets, the UK is a huge part of that. And it's important that there's, I guess, consistency across the standard environment. So how is the role of the UKEB evolved since you first took on the role of chair?
00:02:52:14 - 00:03:16:00
Pauline Wallace
Well, to start off with, when I took it on, the government had established the basic principles and they've given us two roles. The first was to endorse international accounting standards for use in the UK, and the second was to influence the development of those standards. Most our title refers primarily to our role as the endorser of standards. It became increasingly apparent to me that the most important role we had was the influencing one.
00:03:16:03 - 00:03:23:07
Pauline Wallace
So if we do that effectively, in most cases, endorsement for important actually should probably be quite straightforward.
00:03:23:09 - 00:03:36:01
Kate O'Neill
And that influencing part of the role, I think Pauline is so important and unusual, was one of the reasons you did take on the role of chair, because the importance of having a strong voice in this area.
00:03:36:03 - 00:04:02:03
Pauline Wallace
For me, we started off obviously thinking about endorsement because our very first task was to endorse IFRS 17 insurance contracts, which was a pretty horrendously technically complex task. But following that, we realized that it was important to pivot to much more of a focus on influencing. And although we started by doing this simply by responding to consultation documents, we decided very early on that it was important for us to set up our own research facility.
00:04:02:03 - 00:04:06:07
Pauline Wallace
So that they actually influence the IASB at a very early stage of their project.
00:04:06:09 - 00:04:21:04
Kate O'Neill
And I guess during your tenure, you have seen the UKEB active in adopting existing standards and influencing the development of international standards. Who are the key stakeholders that played a significant role in these areas during your tenure?
00:04:21:06 - 00:04:34:04
Pauline Wallace
Well, from a UK perspective, we were obviously talking to all of the people who have an interest in international accounting standards, and that's clearly the preparers, the users, the investors. That's a very fundamentally important stakeholder group.
00:04:34:06 - 00:04:34:22
Kate O'Neill
And.
00:04:34:24 - 00:04:55:11
Pauline Wallace
The auditors. And we also thought academics were a very important part of this. So we set up advisory groups that would actually pull them together as separate advisory groups. So by stakeholder group. So they had an opportunity to discuss issues and influence the way we were thinking, and most importantly, provide the evidence that the board needed to make its decisions.
00:04:55:12 - 00:05:14:06
Pauline Wallace
So those were the key groups. But actually, I also think the fact a very important stakeholder for us, given the voltage regulator of company accounting and corporate reporting in general. So we had good relationships to build with them as well, to make sure that we got the regulatory perspective as well as a user and preparer perspective.
00:05:14:08 - 00:05:37:20
Kate O'Neill
I guess that's so important because the users and prepare as well, as much help as they can to make sure their reporting is transparent and relevant to their activities. And for what their stakeholders are interested in. But what do you think is the most significant achievement of the UKEB under your leadership? I hope that's not an unfair, difficult question for you, Pauline.
00:05:37:22 - 00:05:57:11
Pauline Wallace
Well, it's difficult to limit it to one. I think actually raising our profile internationally has probably been the most important thing that we've done. And that's not just with the IASB, although by membership of ASAF and other things, I think we've done a good job of making sure they're aware of what we're doing. But also talking to other national standard setters.
00:05:57:13 - 00:06:18:01
Pauline Wallace
If I can go back to the discussion we had earlier on research, this is one of the areas where I think our research should be most important, because it's enabled us to kickstart discussions both with the IASB and with other national standard setters on important issues. An early enough stage in their development for us to be able to influence direction, as well as sort of tweak around the edges.
00:06:18:06 - 00:06:42:17
Pauline Wallace
So if I take the work we've done on intangible assets, for example, which I think has probably been the most fundamental piece of research we've done that has been very influential. It enabled us firstly to identify the discrepancy that exists in the UK between the impacts or the contribution that intangibles make to the economy. Now, economists, I think they've estimated it around 350 billion pounds.
00:06:42:19 - 00:06:43:13
Kate O'Neill
Wow.
00:06:43:15 - 00:07:01:15
Pauline Wallace
How much of that is actually recognized as assets on the balance sheet, which is much, much lower than that. And I think that's been a really important piece of evidence to use in developing these discussions with other people as well. So other stakeholder groups have also shown an interest as a result of the research that we've done. So I think that will probably be my number one.
00:07:01:15 - 00:07:22:22
Pauline Wallace
But I'm going to go back to what I said. Beginning our first endorsement process was to endorse IFRS 17, and I'm inordinately proud of my board and the staff for having managed to get that understood and through the processes, because this was extremely complex, extremely technical. And of course, it was a standard we hadn't had the ability to influence at an early stage.
00:07:22:23 - 00:07:26:13
Pauline Wallace
So that was, I thought, the very first achievement that we had.
00:07:26:15 - 00:07:58:03
Kate O'Neill
And I remember talking to you about that a few years ago after a year or so at the UK, b how that was underway and its huge importance, as you say, to the reporting environment. So what do you see the opportunities and challenge for the UKEB and the UK financial reporting landscape in the years ahead? I mean, you've achieved so much during the five years of the UKEB's existence, but what do you think's going to come up that's really not just in the UK but across the international landscape as well.
00:07:58:05 - 00:08:21:22
Pauline Wallace
One thing I have learned is this never stops. This process continues to grow and to develop, and one of the reasons is that there's clearly a demand for accounting standards that address emerging technologies. And we talked about intangibles, and that's one of the areas which has changed fundamentally during my time at the UKEBB so I think a key opportunity is the ability to influence the future agenda of the IASB.
00:08:22:00 - 00:08:42:24
Pauline Wallace
So there are some tensions at the moment. You'll be aware that the IFRS Foundation, which oversees the IASB, has significant financial and resource constraints, as we all do, of course. And getting the balance right between the work that's done on the accounting standards and the available resources is a very critical one. So it's important that there's a good process of prioritization.
00:08:43:01 - 00:08:58:19
Pauline Wallace
And I think UKEB has a role to play in dealing with that. One way, of course, of bolstering the resources of the foundation is to leverage off the resources of the national standard setters, and certainly under the UK, we would be very keen to be involved in that or.
00:08:58:21 - 00:09:22:01
Kate O'Neill
As I said, I feel bad for asking a difficult question to come up with one, and you've given us some excellent examples of the things that you're very proud of and proud of the UKEB achieving during your tenure of the chair. But just want to take the opportunity to thank you for all of the work support that's gone into your role as UKEB chair, and wish you all the very best for the future.
00:09:22:03 - 00:09:39:23
Pauline Wallace
Thank you very much Kate. It's been a great pleasure and actually a real privilege to have been allowed to chair the UK in its first few years and I certainly wish Paul my successor, every success in the future. But also thank you, Kate, for making me feel so welcome within the FLC wider family. It's been fun working with you as well.
00:09:40:00 - 00:09:51:20
Kate O'Neill
Thank you again and best of luck for the future.