Independent Auditor’s Report to the Members of Antares 1274required by auditing standards), and from inspection of the Syndicate and Managing Agent’s regulatory and legal correspondence. We discussed with the directors and other management the policies and procedures regarding compliance with laws and regulations.
As the Syndicate is regulated, our assessment of risks involved gaining an understanding of the control environment including the entity’s procedures for complying with regulatory requirements.
We communicated identified laws and regulations throughout our team and remained alert to any indications of non-compliance throughout the audit. The potential effect of these laws and regulations on the annual return varies considerably.
Firstly, the Syndicate is subject to laws and regulations that directly affect the annual return including financial reporting legislation ( such as the Insurance Accounts Directive, (Lloyd’s Syndicate and Aggregate Accounts) Regulations 2008, and the Lloyd’s Syndicate Accounts Instructions) and we assessed the extent of compliance with these laws and regulations as part of our procedures on the related financial statement items.
Secondly, the Syndicate is subject to many other laws and regulations where the consequences of noncompliance could have a material effect on amounts or disclosures in the Annual Return, for instance through the imposition of fines or litigation or the loss of the Syndicate’s license to operate.
We identified the following areas as those most likely to have such an effect: regulatory capital and liquidity, conduct and financial crime, health and safety, data protection laws, anti-bribery, employment law, money laundering, foreign corrupt practices, environmental protection legislation, and misrepresentation recognising the financial and regulated nature of the Syndicate’s activities. Auditing standards limit the required audit procedures to identify non-compliance with these laws and regulations to enquiry of the directors and other management and inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any. Therefore, if a breach of operational regulations is not disclosed to us or evident from relevant correspondence, an audit will not detect that breach.
Context of the ability of the audit to detect fraud or breaches of law or regulation
Owing to the inherent limitations of an audit, there is an unavoidable risk that we may not have detected some material misstatements in the annual return, even though we have properly planned and performed our audit in accordance with auditing standards. For example, the further removed noncompliance with laws and regulations is from the events and transactions reflected in the annual return, the less likely the inherently limited procedures required by auditing standards would identify it.
In addition, as with any audit, there remained a higher risk of non-detection of fraud, as these may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal controls. Our audit procedures are designed to detect material misstatement. We are not responsible for preventing non-compliance or fraud and cannot be expected to detect non-compliance with all laws and regulations.
Other information – Report of the Directors of the Managing Agent
The Directors are responsible for the Report of the Directors of the Managing Agent. Our opinion on the Syndicate annual accounts does not cover that report and, accordingly, in this audit report we do not express an audit opinion or, except as explicitly stated below, any form of assurance conclusion thereon.
