Abstract

RAMIREZ-CACHO, Sergio Iván; MARTINEZ-GARCIA, Francisco Javier  and  MONTOYA-DEL-CORTE, Javier. The adoption of qualitative reforms regarding materiality and auditing: Empirical evidence on their use and consequences in Mexico and Spain. Innovar [online]. 2012, vol.22, n.43, pp.165-178. ISSN 0121-5051.

The world financial crisis has once again shown the need for more and better measures to update the framework that regulates rules for drafting and auditing of financial information published by companies. Among those measures, the article focuses on issuance of the new Revised and Reedited International Norm on materiality (Norma Internacional de Auditoría Revisada y Reeditada sobre materialidad - NIARR 450), which came into effect on December 15, 2009. It establishes a significant change regarding the need to consider a series of factors when evaluating the significance of incidents detected in the financial information, which, while not numerically significant, due to their particular nature and characteristics, must be corrected, or if not, specified as provisos in the auditing report. The article specifically presents empirical evidence on the tendency shown by a group of auditors in Mexico and Spain regarding effective use of those factors, along with their opinion about the consequences that could arise in certain auditing spheres. While the results are generally positive in terms of evaluating acceptance of the new NIARR 450, there are nonetheless different degrees of agreement among the auditors from both countries about effective use of the qualitative factors of materiality. At the same time, these diverse degrees of consensus can be seen in their opinion on the consequences for informative content, use and understandability of auditing opinions, as well as the reliability, transparency and relevance of financial statements.

Keywords : Qualitative factors; relative importance; international auditing norms; international financial crisis.

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