Samjong KPMG: "KOSPI 200 'Key Audit Matters', Average 1.7 per Company"

Last year, the average number of key audit matters for KOSPI 200 listed companies was 1.69 per company. Key audit matters are the most significant issues in the current period financial statement audit based on the external auditor's professional judgment and are selected from matters communicated with the governance body.

On the 25th, Samjong KPMG published the report "Status of Key Audit Matters and the Role of the Audit Committee" (ACI Issue Report), stating, "Through the analysis of last year's key audit matters, important considerations for the audit committee were presented."

[Provided by Samjong KPMG]

The most frequently selected key audit matters were ▲Revenue recognition (32%) ▲Impairment assessment of tangible and intangible assets (23%) ▲Impairment assessment of investments in associates and subsidiaries (19%), in that order. The accounting treatments for the top topics, revenue recognition and impairment review, were explained focusing on the five-step revenue recognition model and the impairment review process, respectively, and important considerations for the audit committee on each topic were presented. The report also included references such as internal controls related to key audit matters and major accounting issues for focused review.

Kim Min-gyu, leader of the Audit Committee Support Center (ACI) at Samjong KPMG, said, "The audit committee should carefully consider whether the key audit matters selected by the external auditor are truly critical from both internal and external industry perspectives. To this end, the audit (committee) needs to have background knowledge of the key audit matters and consider related important points to effectively perform accounting oversight on the selected key audit matters."

Meanwhile, Samjong KPMG established the Audit Committee Support Center in 2015, the first in the industry, to enhance and activate the roles of audit committee members and auditors. In the same year, it published the country's first "Audit Committee Handbook," which was recently released in e-book format. The report is available for free on the Samjong KPMG website.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.