A group of global regulators and standards setters published a set of recommendations for enhancing the process of devising audit standards.
The so-called Monitoring Group (MG) — which is chaired by the International Organization of Securities Commissions and includes banking, insurance and audit regulators, along with the Financial Stability Board and others — has released its recommendations for strengthening the international system for setting audit and ethics standards.
The recommendations cover the purpose and process of standard-setting, along with governance, accountability and public interest oversight of audit standards.
The group said that its recommendations are intended to foster the development of timely, high-quality standards; to reinforce the importance of the public interest within the standard-setting process; and to create an independent, inclusive standard-setting system.
“The future structure, governance, process of standard-setting and funding goals of the international audit and ethics standard-setting system as outlined in the recommendations represent significant enhancements to the current structure,” the group said in a statement.
These improvements should lead to standards that are more responsive to the public interest and, ultimately, to higher-quality audits, the group said.
“Today is a significant day in our long journey to develop these important recommendations,” said Ana Martínez-Pina, co-chair of the MG, in a statement.
The group said that it aims to establish an implementation plan in the next nine months. It expects its recommendations to be adopted within the next three years.