The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) has launched a dedicated workstream to study ethical issues arising from private equity investments in accounting companies.
The initiative is intended to determine whether there is a need for new ethics requirements or revisions to existing standards that specifically address alternative practice structures (APS).
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Under the workstream, IESBA will collect data and conduct targeted analysis to decide if a full standard‑setting project is necessary to deal with APS‑related ethical issues across different jurisdictions.
This move follows the IESBA Staff Alert on Private Equity Investment in Accounting Firms report issued in July 2025 and considers more recent developments around investment structures in the profession.
These developments include a study by the International Federation of Accountants on the rise of such structures and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) ethics committee’s December 2025 exposure draft on Proposed Revisions to the AICPA Code Related to Alternative Practice Structures.
The IESBA expects that a progress report on the private equity workstream will be presented at its June 2026 meeting.
At its meeting this month, the IESBA board also endorsed several additional priority actions.
One priority is the development of new non‑authoritative material on technology and AI to assist professional accountants as digital tools and systems reshape the profession.
The board also agreed to emphasise facilitating global take‑up of the IESBA’s sustainability standards ahead of their effective date in December.
