Understanding the factors that cause fraud and properly defining key areas of conduct is one of the most effective ways to detect potential irregularities, where the auditor’s professional judgment and skepticism are essential. In this respect, it is necessary to study some key financial indicators, but also to use various procedures to identify and detect fraud and possible manipulation in the financial reporting process. The objectives are aimed at identifying and highlighting possible red flags in companies whose shares are traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The sample considered sensitive to fraudulent financial reporting is composed of four distinct categories of companies, namely: companies recently admitted to trading on the AeRO market administered by the Bucharest Stock Exchange (21), companies that obtained a zero Vektor score in 2020 (9), companies that obtained a low score in the White Letter publication (5), and companies in insolvency (4).

The experience of fraudulent financial reporting scandals that shocked American corporate history in the early 2000’s marked a turning point in the evolution of the financial auditing profession, out of a desire to restore investors’ confidence in the integrity of listed companies’ financial information. The establishment of a public supervision authority for audit firms (PCAOB), the establishment of an audit committee for listed companies or the obligation to report on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, among with severe financial sanctions for corporate fraud, are the most representative legislative measures imposed in the US by the Sarbanex-Oxley Act (2002) to achieve this goal. To a large extent, these measures have also been adopted in Community law, most likely under the impetus of similar events, such as the Parmalat case (2003). Here that, at a not appreciable time distance, such a sensitive issue of fraudulent reporting returns to the center of investors’ attention through the case of the German electronic payment processor - Wirecard (2020). The article aims to investigate possible early signals that could have indicated risk factors or circumstances that could have favored fraudulent financial reporting in the case of this issuer. In essence, the research methodology is limited to the application of the Beneish model on the annual financial reports from 2016-2018, in order to assess its validation in relation to the values of the score function (M).

Over the past two years a significant number of issuers have emerged on the AeRO Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) organized and managed by the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE). Preliminary assessments concluded that investors’ interest for the recent AeRO public offerings of equity and debt seemed to be even greater than in case of the regulated market, possibly explained by a higher return on investments. On the other hand, a preference for the AeRO market instead of the regulated market has been also noticed among the inssuers trying to avoid compliance costs related to financial reporting and corporate governance. These assumptions are relevant to sustain a research direction related to a quality assessment of compliance with relevant corporate governance principles that AeRO issuers must also embrace and implement. The research methodology includes governance compliance inspections, issuers’ website screenings and annual report reviews. The sample of issuers is formed by the 20 issuers included in the BETAeRO Index launched on 11th of October, 2021. We expect that our findings will provide a relevant basis of conclusions to support a broaden utility of the Vektor transparency index, which should be extended for AeRO issuers as well.

Investor behavior around an initial public offering or private placement can make the difference between a successful investment or a potential loss. Through the present research, the correlation of investors’ behavior with the possible discount of the share granted in the case of initial offers was sought. The large number of companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in 2021(23) compared to 2020(3) denotes the fact that the SARS-COV2 virus was a certain catalyst of interest for investors and companies to enter the Romanian capital market. From another point of view, we observe a strong orientation of companies towards MTF AeRO. Out of the total of 26 analyzed companies, only 3 of them chose the regulated market for trading

Using accurate and reliable financial information is the primary condition for successful investments on a stock exchange. Nevertheless, some major corporate scandals broke out at the 21st century horizon and concluded with a major capital market crisis in confidence. Recent events have proved that Romanian capital market is no exception. All these unfortunate scandals had in common some ingredients, among which are a poor corporate governance, a lack of accountability, and misrepresentation of financial information. This chapter relates to the need of integrity in financial reporting process, as the basis for adequate, reliable, and comprehensive information used in decision making by investors in general, institutional investors in particular. The main focus is to review the characteristics of financial information in order to identify some patterns and depict an overview for sensitive areas that may be vulnerable to fraudulent behavior, such as fair value measurements, related party transactions, revenue recognition, provisions, or asset impairment (inventories and receivables).