The Institute of Internal Auditors is planning changes next year to its continuing professional education reporting policy to make sure internal audit professionals are regularly enhancing their skills and keeping up to date with emerging trends and risks.
The changes to CPE policy, which were approved by the IIA's Professional Certification's Board, allow any surplus of CPE credits acquired during a calendar year to be used for the following calendar year reporting cycle, with a maximum of 20 hours for Certified Internal Auditors and 10 hours for other IIA designations, that can be rolled over. The grace period has increased from one year to two years.
While those changes may ease the CPE process, some of the policy changes signal a tougher stance. A certification will be "revoked" if the holder goes three consecutive years without reporting CPE. In addition, a certification in "revoked" status cannot be reinstated; an individual with "revoked" certifications will need to retake the exams.
"After a thorough review, the PCB decided to update our CPE reporting policy to align with credentialing best practices and maintain the credibility of the IIA's certifications," said Dr. Lily Bi, executive vice president of global standards and certification at the IIA, in a statement Wednesday. "Continuing professional education is an opportunity for internal auditors to demonstrate their commitment to lifelong learning, which serves to benefit all certification holders, their employers, and stakeholders alike."
As part of the changes, the "CPE Reporting Policy" will become known as the "Annual Certification Renewal Policy" on Sept. 1, 2023, when the changes above take effect for all IIA certification holders and current candidates.
Individual certification holders who are currently in either grace period or expired status can't claim the certifications. They should instead follow the current CPE policy to report CPE or reinstate their certifications before the new policy takes effect. Detailed information on the CPE changes, including the full current CPE reporting policy and the newly approved ACRP, is available on the
Last week, the IIA held its Ignite conference in Las Vegas where internal audit leaders spoke about the challenges their organizations face.
"As internal auditors, we need information for people to share with us," said Rachel Tressy, chief auditor and senior vice president at Voya Financial. "We need people to say to us that this is what's going on. Ideally we can be the trusted advisor, and for some of the team it's a little bit uncomfortable. If we've got someone who's new to the team, we're not going to send them off into a scary conversation. We're going to pair them up with a peer and they're going to own the relationship together, but it's to try and evolve it. With COVID, it's been really interesting. We used to be able to just walk down the hall, and if you saw somebody was on the phone, you could just pop your head in and say, 'Hey, what's going on.' Our team right now is mostly home and our business partners and our auditors are still mostly remote, so we've needed to take this management matrix and be very deliberate. You need to schedule time. You don't want it to be purely an audit conversation."
