Banks – Auditing IFRS 9’s ECL requirements

Published on October 10, 2019

Audit committees need to be active now, providing strong governance for robust implementation

The new financial instruments standard IFRS 9 Financial Instruments becomes effective in a matter of months, and critical accounting judgments will soon need to be made. Estimating expected credit losses (ECL) is perhaps the single most significant change in banks’ financial reporting.

As part of their oversight role during the adoption of IFRS 9, banks’ audit committees need to assess and monitor the effectiveness of the external auditor’s response to the risks of material misstatement presented by ECL estimates. Expectations of them, and of auditors, are high.

The Global Public Policy Committee (GPPC) – which comprises representatives from the six largest global accounting networks BDO, Deloitte, EY, Grant Thornton, KPMG, and PwC – has published a paper that seeks to help banks’ audit committees fulfill this responsibility by providing guidance to help audit committees evaluate the effectiveness of auditors.

The paper is addressed to audit committees of systemically important banks (SIBs), but the principles also apply in a proportionate way to other banks and financial institutions. The paper builds on earlier guidance on implementation published by the GPPC last year.

KPMG has published a quick guide (PDF 282 KB) to the GPPC paper, to give audit committees and preparers an overview of the key contents and principles in

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