IES 8 Project

IES 8, Professional Competence for Engagement Partners Responsible for Audits of Financial Statements prescribes the professional competence that professional accountants performing the role of an audit engagement partner must develop and maintain. Professional competence is demonstrated through the achievement of learning outcomes, including, but not limited to, those prescribed in IES 8. IES 8 also provides explanatory materials to provide guidance on how professional competence interacts with Continuing Professional Development and international standards on quality management.

Two developments were the impetus for a standards development project, which considered whether revisions to IES 8 may potentially be required. These developments were:

• IES 2, 3 and 4 (Revised): The professional competence requirements for aspiring professional accountants will be changing from July 1, 2026 to embed sustainability-related concepts in the learning outcomes of these standards. The changes were evaluated in the context of professional competence for audit engagement partners.
• Updates to the international quality management standards: As part of the revisions to IES 6, limited conforming amendments were made to IES 8 to remove out-of-date references to International Standard on Quality Control 1 and International Standard on Auditing 220 (ISA 220) and update references instead to the new suite of international quality management standards (International Standard on Quality Management 1 and 2 and ISA 220 (Revised)). The Panel had concluded that further evaluation and analysis of IES 8 would be performed after the issuance of IES 2, 3, and 4 (Revised).

The Panel established an IES 8 Working Group to begin an initial project identification and stakeholder engagements. The IES 8 Working Group developed a project scope and undertook information gathering between August 2025-March 2026. An update was provided to the Panel. Based on this discussion, the Panel voted to expand the purpose of the working group to incorporate IES 7, with the consideration to collapse IES 8 into IES 7, and therefore, revert to project proposal phase. As a result of this vote, the IES 8 Project will be closed and a new IES project and working group will be set up, restarting at the Project Proposal phase, which will reconsider the project scope and the skills required for the working group composition.

Project Timeline

Working Group Members

• Manil Jayesinghe (Working Group Chair)
• Anne-Marie Vitale (Panel Chair)
• Jennifer Eberman
• Susan Flis
• Sven Hayn
• Nadine Kater
• Sipho Khumalo
• Roger Loutfi
• Simon Sfeir
• Jan Taylor
• Adriana Tiron Tudor
• Michelle Cardwell (IFAC Staff)