연결감사인 일치화 실태와 New ISA 600 도입에 따른 문제에 대한 고찰

The Financial Supervisory Service decided to adopt New International Standard on Auditing (New ISA) statements, which will be effective from 2014. Among the statements, New ISA 600 prohibits a group auditor to make reference to the audit of other auditors when he/she expresses his/her opinion on the financial statements. In the practice, therefore, there is growing concern that the introduction of New ISA 600 leads to the unification of auditors into several major accounting firms. That is, group auditors replace component auditors in the audit engagements of subsidiaries, due to group auditors' increased responsibility. There are conflicting arguments on the effect of auditor unification. One stream of prior research asserts that audit quality can be improved through the unification of auditors into a group auditor. Another stream, on the other hand, argues that the concentration of audit engagements into several major accounting firms result in oligopoly in accounting industry, which distorts the market. In case of that, the negative consequences to the society is more serious when it is wrong with major accounting firms. Considering these positive and negative effects, it needs to investigate whether the unification of auditors into group auditor is desirable. This study examines the matter of auditor unification regarding the introduction of New ISA 600. Specifically, we investigate the state of auditor unification for consolidated financial statements and interview members who are in charge of the Office of Quality and Risk Management in several accounting firms. In doing so, we identify the issues and related suggestions on the introduction of New ISA 600.