Volcker tells auditors to improve confidence
Auditors must improve confidence in the accountancy profession and act in the public interest to maintain reliable financial reporting, a leading standard-setter has said.
Link: Accounting world descends on Hong Kong
Paul Volcker, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve and current chairman of the Trustees of the International Accounting Standards Committee, said auditors must act as guardians of ‘truth in markets.’
He was speaking at the Hong Kong 16th World Congress of Accountants which included 5,000 accountants from over 100 countries.
Volcker told the congregation that accounting and auditor discipline had been eroded. ‘I see the role of an auditor as guardian of “truth in markets”, acting in the public interest to maintain reliable and consistent reporting,’ reported the Financial Times.
He went on to say that it won’t always be a popular role but pushed his point home by saying: ‘What is at stake is the credibility of a profession that, in fact, relies on that credibility as the bedrock of all it does.’