Statements of Membership Obligations, 1-7

The IFAC Statements of Membership Obligations (SMOs) provide clear benchmarks to current and potential IFAC member organizations of IFAC’s requirements. The SMOs also serve as the global benchmarking framework and represent the core competencies of strong, credible, high-quality professional accountancy organizations (PAO) that most appropriately serve and function in the public interest.

The SMOs, which are the basis of the IFAC Member Compliance Program, assist PAOs in serving the public interest by supporting the adoption and implementation of international standards and other pronouncements issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB), International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA), International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB), International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS Foundation), and the International Education Standards and maintaining quality assurance review systems and investigation and discipline mechanisms.

The SMOs were reviewed in 2021 to ensure that they continue to be relevant, sufficient, and effective. The review focused on:

• Aligning with changes to standards issued by the IAASB, IESBA, IPSASB as well as to the international standard-setting boards’ oversight arrangements;
• Ensuring SMO 1, Quality Assurance, and SMO 6, Investigation and Discipline, remain relevant and reflect best practices as these are mechanisms whose key components are contained within the SMO itself rather than pronouncements issued by an independent standard-setting board; and
• An editorial review to ensure clarity and consistency.

The revised SMOs were approved by the IFAC Board in June 2022 and are effective July 1, 2022.

IFAC has developed a short guide, Review of the SMOs: Guidance to Changes and Future Initiatives, providing an overview of the changes.

SMOs Now Available on IFAC’s Digital Platform

To support PAOs efforts to adopt and implement high-quality international standards and fulfill IFAC membership requirements, the IFAC Statements of Membership Obligations are now available in a digital platform. The platform provides a unique, central access point to the SMOs, and the many SMO-related resources that have been developed in multiple languages over 20 years. The digital platform helps all PAOs understand IFAC membership requirements and sorts resources according to SMOs; develop roadmaps to adopt and implement international standards and meet IFAC requirements; and encourage greater collaboration among stakeholders to strengthen the accountancy profession.

This platform will continue to be updated with new resources.