The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) launched a consultation process on proposed narrow scope amendments to achieve greater convergence with the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants’ (IESBA) International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (Including Independence Standards). These proposed revisions have two key objectives:

1. Aligning definitions and requirements in IAASB standards with new definitions for publicly traded and public interest entities in the IESBA Code.
2. Extending the amendments applicability of existing differential requirements for listed entities to meet heightened stakeholder expectations regarding audits of public interest entities (PIE).

Key proposed revisions include extending the scope of the entities included under the International Standards on Quality Management and the International Standards on Auditing such that they will be subject to:

• Engagement quality reviews;
• Providing transparency in the auditor’s report on specific aspects of the audit, including auditor independence, communicating key audit matters, and the engagement partner’s name; and
• Communicating with those charged with governance to help them fulfill their responsibility overseeing the financial reporting process, (e.g., communicating about quality management and auditor independence).

How to Comment

MIA would like to invite its members to contribute to this consultation process by sending their feedback to technical@miamalta.org by 29 February 2024. Comments received will be taken into consideration when drawing up MIA’s consolidated feedback.

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