Investor and Other Stakeholders Working Group

IFIAR’s dialogue with investors and other stakeholders is prepared and led by the Investor and Other Stakeholders Working Group. The group is chaired by J. Robert Brown, Jr. of the United States PCAOB, with Peter Hofbauer serving as Vice Chair. The group includes IFIAR Members from Austria, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Members of IFIAR share the common goal of protecting the interests of investors in the preparation of informative, accurate and independent audit reports and improving audit quality globally. The objective of the Investor and Other Stakeholders Working Group is to enhance investor protection and improve audit quality based on suggestions both by investors (the ultimate beneficiaries of the audit) and other stakeholders with an interest in audit-related matters. To date, the Working Group has jointly worked with the GAQ Working Group and the Standards Coordination Working Group on matters of interest. Since its inception in 2009, the Working Group has held panel sessions at IFIAR Plenary Meetings. Summaries of the panel sessions can be found below:

• Rhodes, 30 April - 2 May 2019
• Ottawa, 16-19, April 2018
• Taipei, 21-23, April 2015
• Washington, 7-9, April 2014
• Noordwijk, 15-17, April 2013

At the 2016 Plenary Meeting, IFIAR established a global Advisory Group to the Investor and Other Stakeholders Working Group. The establishment of this Group allows IFIAR to bring more continuity and depth in its ongoing dialogue with investors, audit committees and other key stakeholders that share IFIAR’s objective of enhancing audit quality globally and the promotion of investor protection. Such dialogue will help ensure IFIAR focuses on those audit quality issues most relevant to investors. More information on the Advisory Group can be found below.

The Working Group will continue to seek the views of, and organize meetings with, investor and other stakeholder representatives where IFIAR Members can hear the views of investor and other stakeholder representatives on important audit-related matters, with an emphasis on how to enhance investor protection and improve audit quality.

IOSWG Information

• IOSWG Terms of Reference (updated in December 2019)
• Bios of the Advisory Group members

IOSWG and AG Papers

• IOSWG AG Paper on the 2019/2020 Survey of Global Investors on Auditor's Role in connection with Detection and Reporting of Fraud and Illegal Acts
• Current Trends in the Audit Industry Paper
• Summary of 2018 IOSWG Survey - IFIAR Member & Audit Committee Interactions (The Summary Report currently available contains a minor update compared to the original summary. This updated version was uploaded on 7 January 2019)
• Audit Committees and Audit Quality Paper

The IOSWG has established a page to maintain practical examples of stakeholder outreach activities taking place in IFIAR Member organisations. Please click here to access this webpage.