This report is an independent, qualitative and quantitative analysis by Gibson Dunn of the public responses to the Consultation Paper published by the Monitoring Group. 

It’s time to fix a costly fracture in the global economy.

IFAC (International Federation of Accountants) and Business at the OECD (BIAC) surveyed over 250 regulatory and compliance leaders from major global financial institutions to estimate that a piecemeal approach to financial sector regulation costs the global economy $780 billion USD a year.

Changes in the technology used in the business world have an impact on the information and communications technology skills professional accountants need—both current accountants as well as aspiring accountants. Assessing necessary skills and meeting the need are a challenge for the accounting profession, especially when combined with the growing importance of behavioral skills.

This report provides an analysis of the status of adoption of international standards and best practices, the role of IFAC member organizations in the adoption process, and their fulfillment of IFAC requirements—the Statements of Membership Obligations.

Following the Professional Accountants in Business Committee’s September 2017 web meeting, this report shares the collective knowledge, ideas, and experience of the committee regarding the role of professional accountants as business leaders and value enablers for organizations.

The main themes in the report, and in the meeting it flows from, are:

In 2015, the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB), International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA), and the International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB) convened a small, cross-representational working group—the Professional Skepticism Working Group—to formulate views on whether and how each of the three boards’ sets of international standards could further contribute to strengthening the understanding and application of the concept of professional skepticism as it applies to an audit.