Audit regime
An audit regime is usually a rigorous set of forensic accounting methods that is used to detect fraud. It refers more generally however to any similar regime of verification of conformity to some standard, e.g. Kyoto Protocol, Harkin-Engel Protocol, or some mandatory labeling scheme. Without such a regime, transparency is simply not attainable. Most accounting reform includes strict audit measures to verify that new standards are met. Financial privacy is often in direct conflict with the desire for any stricter audit regimes. Characteristics of an effective audit regime include: After major accounting scandals in the United States  that became publicly visible in 2001 and 2002, and the controversies about various ways of claiming carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol, there has been increasing attention paid to audit regimes in the English speaking world. This has often focused on bringing United States standards up to the level of much stricter United Kingdom or European Union standards, which are of more recent origins.