IIA approves revised global internal audit standards

The International Internal Audit Standards Board voted to approve a set of new Global Internal Audit Standards that are expected to be released in January.

The final standards from the Institute of Internal Auditors are scheduled to be released in English on Jan. 9, 2024, with translations into other languages to follow in the months ahead. An enhanced e-publication will provide enriched user options and a print edition is in development as well. The standards are scheduled to take effect in January 2025, 12 months after their release.

The approval of the final standards follows on the heels of a six-month review of the results of a public comment process and a subsequent revision of the exposed draft standards. The IIASB said Wednesday it analyzed and considered nearly 19,000 specific comments from 1,600 completed surveys, plus feedback received through letters from and meetings with stakeholders. The IIA and IIASB plan to release a disposition report next month, summarizing the themes of feedback and the IIASB’s decisions as reflected in the final version.

On top of the final standards and disposition report, the IIA will provide practitioners with a document mapping the 2017 International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing and the 2024 Global Internal Audit Standards.

The IIA also plans to host a webinar on Jan. 24, 2024 to help internal audit practitioners and stakeholders become familiar with the new standards and their impact on the internal audit profession. Attendees will hear from IIASB representatives about the structure and content of the final standards and learn about the primary changes. The same webinar will be broadcast three times, with a live Q&A session at the end of each, to accommodate attendees in various time zones globally.

Richard Chambers, former president and CEO of the Institute of Internal Auditors and currently a senior internal audit advisor at AuditBoard, discussed the new Global Internal Audit Standards recently with Accounting Today. “That’s going to influence the key priorities for internal audit next year,” he said. “Around the first of January, you’re going to have a year to get compliant, so whatever the new requirements are in those standards, that’s going to be on the internal auditor’s shoulders, along with all of these other compliance requirements coming out of regulatory and legislative this year. I think 2024 is setting up to be the year of compliance risk.”

The release of the new standards represents a milestone in the IPPF Evolution, a project that kicked off in 2020 with the goal of increasing the relevance and responsiveness of the IIA’s International Professional Practices Framework to current challenges in the profession. The IPPF Evolution continues next year with the development of topical requirements, which have to be applied when weighing specific audit topics or engagements designated within an organization’s audit plan. Updated IIA products and services — including the Quality Assessment Manual and external quality assessments, instructor-led and on-demand training sessions, and certifications — are scheduled to be released from 2024 through 2026. Visit https://www.theiia.org/en/standards/ippf-evolution/ for more information.