MADISON, Wis.–The World Council of Credit Unions has filed a letter with the Monitoring Group regarding how audit standards for credit unions should be set in a transparent and publicly accountable way.
The international minimum standards for audits that the Monitoring Group is consulting about are likely to affect U.S. Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS) that apply to most credit union audits in the U.S., said Michael S. Edwards, VP and general counsel with WOCCU. While the AICPA sets GAAS, it has to do so consistently with the international minimum standards for audits.
In its letter WOCCU expressed support for the Monitoring Group’s proposal for a “multi-stakeholder” standard setting board and advisory group for developing auditing standards that would include members who are not necessarily accountants but who have industry experience, such as being a representative of a credit union, a credit union trade association or a credit union regulatory agency. Currently, only the accounting profession is typically consulted regarding these minimum international standards for audits, WOCCU noted.
WOCCU further supported the Group’s proposal that audit standards should be developed in the public interest with independence, credibility, cost effectiveness, relevance, transparency, and accountability.
“Regarding cost effectiveness, we urged the Group to use quantitative cost-benefit analyses to establish whether the potential regulatory burdens of a proposal outweigh the proposal’s benefits,” Edwards said.
Edwards added, however, that WOCCU does not support issuing new auditing standards more frequently, because more frequent updates to auditing standards would increase compliance burdens on credit unions.
The comment letter can be found here: http://www.woccu.org/documents/The_Monitoring_Group_International_Auditing_Standard_Governance