Dubai’s financial services watchdog has signed an agreement with a global group of regulators to assist in what it calls the “borderless activity” of financial auditing.
The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) joined 21 regulators from International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators’ (IFIAR) by signing a memorandum of understanding relating to co-operation on auditor oversight, at a plenary meeting held in in Tokyo yesterday.
The IFIAR is made up of 52 independent audit regulators from around the world including UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and the US’ Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). It was set up in 2006 as a forum for regulators to share knowledge of the audit market environment.
The memorandum was signed by the DFSA’s chief executive Ian Johnson, (pictured signing at yesterday’s event above), and aims to “encourage and strengthen information sharing and co-operation and to offer mutual assistance among IFIAR members”, the DFSA said.
Johnston said that he was pleased to see that the DFSA is among the first regulators to satisfy the new international standards. “We have always placed a high priority on co-operation and our ability to share information and assist fellow regulators,” he said. “In signing this MoU (Memorandum of Understanding), we continue to affirm our commitment to international co-operation.
“Audit has become a borderless activity and it is important that audit regulators are able to co-operate seamlessly in a challenging business environment.”
