International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including International Independence Standards) (the Code) is the culmination of extensive research and global stakeholder consultation. The Code includes substantive revisions and is completely rewritten under a new structure and drafting convention.

The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants^® (IESBA^®) today released a completely rewritten Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants that is easier to navigate, use and enforce. Beyond the new structure, the Code brings together key ethics advances over the past four years, and is clearer about how accountants should deal with ethics and independence issues.

While the fundamental principles of ethics have not changed, major revisions have been made to the unifying conceptual framework—the approach used by all professional accountants to identify, evaluate and address threats to compliance with the fundamental principles and, where applicable, independence. New Code highlights include: 

• Revised “safeguards” provisions better aligned to threats to compliance with the fundamental principles;
• Stronger independence provisions regarding long association of personnel with audit clients;
• New and revised sections dedicated to professional accountants in business (PAIBs) relating to:
  • preparing and presenting information; and
  • pressure to breach the fundamental principles.
• Clear guidance for accountants in public practice that relevant PAIB provisions are applicable to them;
• New guidance to emphasize the importance of understanding facts and circumstances when exercising professional judgment; and
• New guidance to explain how compliance with the fundamental principles supports the exercise of professional skepticism in an audit or other assurance engagements.

“This is a groundbreaking moment in the public interest. The Code is now a significantly strengthened platform, re-engineered for greater usability while maintaining global applicability. It underscores the importance of the fundamental principles for all professional accountants,” said IESBA Chairman Dr. Stavros Thomadakis. “Critical work begins now within firms, national standards setters, regulators and audit oversight bodies, educators, IFAC member bodies and others to promote awareness of the Code, and support its adoption and implementation.”

“I congratulate the IESBA on this significant achievement,” said Kristian Koktvedgaard, Chair of IESBA’s multi-stakeholder Consultative Advisory Group (CAG). “A strong international Code of Ethics is one of the defining characteristics of the global accountancy profession. Clearer, more usable and enforceable independence and ethics standards are essential to public trust in the profession. The new Code establishes a solid base for “future-ready” ethics standards, and I am pleased that the CAG contributed to its development.”

Renamed the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants^TM (including International Independence Standards^TM), the new Code becomes effective in June 2019. It is the culmination of extensive research and global stakeholder consultation. Stakeholders can now access the new Code on the IESBA’s website, where implementation resources and other supporting materials will be released throughout the period leading up to the effective date.

About the IESBA
The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants is an independent standard-setting board that develops and issues, in the public interest, high-quality ethical standards and other pronouncements for professional accountants worldwide. Through its activities, the IESBA develops the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, which establishes ethical requirements for professional accountants. The structures and processes that support the operations of the IESBA are facilitated by IFAC. Please visit www.ethicsboard.org for more information, and follow us on Twitter @Ethics_Board.

About IFAC^®
IFAC is the global organization for the accountancy profession dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies. IFAC is comprised of more than 175 members and associates in more than 130 countries and jurisdictions, representing approximately 2.8 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry, and commerce.

The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) will hold roundtables in Washington (June 11^th), Paris (June 15^th) and Tokyo (July 12^th) to obtain stakeholder feedback on significant public interest topics including non-assurance services (NAS) and the exercise of professional skepticism.

To help shape the future of IESBA’s standard setting, the roundtable consultations will focus on:

Non-Assurance Services (NAS)
To enhance auditor independence, how best to delineate both the boundaries and types of NAS auditors can provide to their audit clients? Auditor independence is critical to public trust in audited financial statements. We’ve launched a NAS initiative to explore broad permissibility under the IESBA’s International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including International Independence Standards) (the Code) in response to global regulatory developments and calls from stakeholders and the Public Interest Oversight Board.

Professional Skepticism
How best to meet public expectations for all professional accountants, including auditors, to exercise “professional skepticism”? We’ve launched an initiative to explore: the behavioral characteristics inherent in professional skepticism; whether those characteristics should be applied by all professional accountants; and whether the Code should be further developed.

Save the dates! The roundtables will be held in:

• Washington, D.C., USA on June 11, 2018; 
• Paris, France on June 15, 2018; and 
• Tokyo, Japan on July 12, 2018. 

Would you like to attend?
As space is limited, attendance will be by invitation only. Register your interest (IESBA@ethicsboard.org) by April 30, 2018, indicating your name, job title, organization and preferred location. An invitation will follow shortly!

Who should attend?
Investors, audit committee members, preparers, regulators and audit oversight authorities, academics, national standards setters, firms and IFAC member bodies.

About the IESBA
The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) mission is to serve the public interest by setting ethics standards, including auditor independence requirements, that seek to raise the bar for ethical conduct and practice for all professional accountants (PAs) worldwide through a robust, globally operable International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (Including International Independence Standards) (the Code). Please visit www.ethicsboard.org for more information.

Mrs Wydell is currently General Manager Professional Standards at Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) where she and her teams work to assist CA ANZ members by communicating, educating, helping, reviewing and, if necessary, disciplining members in relation to professional and ethical standards and behaviour.  Mrs Wydell is also responsible for forming policy positions on proposed ethical and professional standards and liaising with Australian regulators on issues relevant to the Accounting profession.  She engages with the Australian Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board on CA ANZ's behalf.

Mrs Wydell’s prior work experience was with two international network firms predominantly in the audit area of practice.  Mrs Wydell was previously a member of the Australian Auditing and Assurance Standards Board and is currently a director and chair of the Audit, Risk and Finance Committee for a large independent girl’s school.

Mrs Wydell has a bachelor’s degree in accounting and has been a member of CA ANZ for 25 years. 

Sundeep Takwani is ACCA’s Director of Regulation and is responsible for ethical and regulatory matters, including public practice and audit registration. Mr Takwani oversees ACCA’s regulatory responsibilities and its relationships with regulators, and also is responsible for servicing ACCA’s governance and public interest oversight arrangements for regulation and discipline. Additionally, Mr Takwani manages the updating of ACCA of the ACCA Rulebook; including ACCA’s Code of Ethics and Conduct, and represents ACCA on profession-wide ethics and regulatory forums.

Mr Takwani is a FCCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and a member of Chartered Accountants Australia, and, New Zealand and The Chartered Institute of Taxation. Mr Takwani holds a BA (Hons) in Economics.

The IESBA has submitted a comment letter to the Monitoring Group's Consultation Paper, Strengthening the Governance and Oversight of the International Audit-related Standard-setting.

Dr. Jens Engelhardt became Technical Advisor to Prof. Dr. Jens Poll in January 2018. Dr. Engelhardt is Senior Manager in the Audit & Accounting Division at the German Chamber of Public Accountants (Wirtschaftsprüferkammer – WPK). He is a member of Accountancy Europe (AE)’s Professional Ethics and Competencies Working Group.

Dr. Engelhardt is a lawyer and holds a PhD in comparative law.

Gregory Driscoll is a Partner in the Risk Management, Independence Group at KPMG LLP in the United States.  In this role, Mr. Driscoll has responsibilities related to ethics and independence for KPMG-US and participates with KPMG International’s Global Independence Group.  Previous to this role, Mr. Driscoll also served in the Department of Professional Practice for KPMG-US, which included a practice fellowship with the US Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). During his fellowship, Mr. Driscoll also was partially seconded to the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board. 

Mr. Driscoll is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.  He has a BS in Accounting from Fairfield University.

Professor Winifred Mary Tarinyeba Kiryabwire was appointed to the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) in 2018 as a self-nominated public member. Sheis an Associate Professor of law in the department of Commercial Law at the School of Law, Makerere University in Uganda. Areas of expertise include corporate law, securities regulation, and corporate governance.

Outside academia, Ms. Kiryabwire has advised various government agencies and inter-governmental bodies on the development and implementation of company law and securities regulatory frameworks.

Ms. Kiryabwire is a certified company director and serves as non- executive director for a financial institution in Uganda (DFCU Bank Limited) where she is a member of the Audit Committee, Risk and Credit Committee and chair of the Remuneration Committee. In addition, she is a non- executive director of a multi donor funded financial sector development organization (Financial Sector Deepening Uganda) where she chairs the Investment Committee and is a member of the Audit, Finance, and Risk Committee.  

Ms. Kiryabwire has previously served as Chairperson of Gatsby Microfinance Uganda Limited, member of the Governing Council of Mbarara University of Science and Technology and member of the board of Makerere University Holdings Limited, African Alliance Uganda Ltd, member of the Public Sector Administration Audit Committee and Vice- Chairperson of the Uganda National NGO Quality Assurance Mechanism.

She is a member of the Institute of Directors (UK), International Insolvency Institute and INSOL International. Ms. Kiryabwire holds a Doctor of Science of Law degree (JSD) and Master of Science of Law degree (JSM) from Stanford University, as well as a Master of Laws degree (LL.M) from Cambridge University, UK; a Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice (PGDLP).

Sung-Nam Kim became a member of the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants in January, 2021. He was nominated by the Korean Institute of Certified Public Accountants (KICPA).

Mr. Kim is currently a non-partner advisor of EY Korea and an Executive Auditor of the KICPA. He retired from EY Korea as a Risk Management partner in June 2018. He served as a member of the Korea Accounting Standards Board (2005-2009) and the Ethics Standards Board of the KICPA (2016- 2020).

Mr. Kim received a Bachelor's Degree and an MBA in accounting at Sung Kyun Kwan University in Korea and is a member of the KICPA and a former member of the AICPA.