News Brief, ASEAN audit regulators and World Bank in Collaboration over audit quality standards

ASEAN audit regulators and the World Bank hold discussions to raise the standard of audit quality in ASEAN.

The standard of audit quality was a key agenda item at the sixth Annual Meeting of the ASEAN Audit Regulators Group (AARG) held in Singapore on 26 Aug 2016.

Hosted by the Accounting Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) the meeting was attended by over 100 participants and included regulators from eight ASEAN countries, Hong Kong and China, as well as the regional and global leadership of the Global Public Policy Committee (GPPC) audit firms.

Members of the AARG comprise of Singapore’s ACRA, Malaysia’s Audit Oversight Board (AOB), Indonesia’s Finance Professions Supervisory Center (PPPK) and Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Capacity building workshops and technical assistance catering to differing capacity levels of ASEAN members are initiatives taken by AARG to raise audit quality standards and achieve alignment in audit regulatory practices among members in ASEAN.

Commenting on the proposed AARG-World Bank collaboration Kenneth Yap, chief executive, ACRA said:  “The World Bank’s support is timely as the AARG seeks to speak with a unified voice to promote a high quality audit regime applied consistently across ASEAN.”