The New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants will be required to regulate auditors as a specialist profession rather than as chartered accountants, in plans announced by the government. Oversight of the process will be provided by The Accounting Standards Review Board, which will have monitoring and reporting authority, together with an option to direct that the Institute addresses any shortcomings in the way it regulates.
Existing arrangements allow a chartered accountant with a Certificate of Public Practice to conduct an audit without restriction. The new regulatory arrangements are likely to come into effect in 2012.
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