Which service poses a self-review threat when provided to listed finance or investment companies?

The self-review threat occurs when a firm's audit team is placed in a position where they must evaluate their own work during an audit. This can lead to a lack of objectivity, as the auditors may be influenced by their previous involvement in the work being reviewed.

Corporate finance services often involve significant contributions to financial reporting, such as assisting with mergers and acquisitions, structuring transactions, or preparing financial forecasts. When an auditor provides these services, they may create or influence the financial information that will later be audited. Consequently, when the same auditors assess that information during the financial statement audit, they face a self-review threat. The conclusions or evaluations they previously made may impact their ability to impartially judge the validity of the financial statements.

In contrast, while the other services listed, such as transaction-related services and accounting services, could also pose various types of risks, they typically do not carry the same level of inherent self-review threat that corporate finance services do when provided to listed finance or investment companies. This is primarily due to the depth of involvement in actual financial reporting and decision-making processes that corporate finance entails.