The Green Pen Digest – May 2025 - Green Pen Consulting

Welcome to the fifth edition of the Green Pen Digest!

Global Updates

1. World Economic Forum – The Future of Jobs Report 2025

The Future of Jobs Report 2025 brings together the perspective of over 1,000 leading global employers—collectively representing more than 14 million workers across 22 industry clusters and 55 economies from around the world—to examine how the current macro trends are impacting jobs and skills, and the workforce transformation strategies employers plan to embark on in response, across the 2025 to 2030 timeframe.

You can download the report here.

2. COSO Corporate Governance Framework

COSO (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission), in collaboration with NACD (National Association of Corporate Directors), released the exposure draft of the new Corporate Governance Framework (CGF).

The CGF is designed to complement and align with COSO’s Internal Control and Enterprise Risk Management frameworks and is open for public comment until 11th July 2025. You can have your say, or find out more, here.

3. New Global Practice Guide Released – Coordination and Reliance: Working with Other Assurance Providers

Coordination among the internal audit function and other assurance providers creates operational efficiencies, improves risk coverage, and promotes smart investment of resources. To support this, The Institute of Internal Auditors Inc. has released a Global Practice Guide for members, available here.

4. New Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) Exam Released

To align with the updates to the Global Internal Audit Standards and bring the exams up to date with current global practices of internal auditing, The Institute of Internal Auditors has released the new CIA Syllabi and Exam. To find out more about the new CIA exam, as well as the Internal Audit Practitioner (IAP) and Certification in Risk Management Assurance (CRMA) certifications, visit the IIA Certification page, here.

If you prefer to listen, changes to the exam are also highlighted in the latest edition of the All Things Internal Audit podcast from the IIA, available here.

5. Call for Speakers – Global Audit Minds (GAM) Conference 2026

GAM 2026 is being held on 9-11th March 2026 at the ARIA in Las Vegas, and speaker submissions are now open.

For a Full Session submission, submit your proposal here by 15 August 2025.

For a Rapid Fire Trend Talk (max. 8 minutes) submit your proposal here by 27 June 2025.

6. McKinsey & Co report on Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) best practices

After interviewing 193 decision-makers in Europe (40%), North America (37%), Asia–Pacific (14%) and other regions (9%) McKinsey & Company have released their latest article: Governance, risk, and compliance: A new lens on best practices.

The article gives insights into how the respondents structure their governance frameworks, manage risk, and comply with local and regional regulations. It also offers insights into the varying levels of GRC maturity globally and highlights the strategies that some companies are using to build smarter, more effective capabilities. You can read more here.

7. Call for Chief Audit Executives to Support Internal Audit Academic Research

8. EY / IIF Insurance Risk Management Survey Results

The job of Chief Risk Officers (CROs) in the insurance sector continues to grow more complex and challenging. The survey results confirm that resilience is a focal point because of its close links to cyber, technology, third-party and regulatory risk. But broad industry trends are other factors driving the focus on resilience.

Download and read the full report here

9. The ESG Equation – Third Edition

The 3rd edition of the ESG Equation from the UAE IAA – UAE Internal Auditors Association is here, with a key focus on the new UAE Climate Change Reduction Law, requiring businesses to track and report emissions starting May 30, 2025.

While not yet available on the Association’s website, you can find a link to the Third Edition here, in a post by Ehab Saif (thank you, Ehab!)

10. New ‘Orange Book’ for Public Sector Auditors in the United States

Two prominent sets of standards used by public sector auditors were updated in 2024: The IIA’s Global Internal Audit Standards™ (The Redbook™) and the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)’s Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS) (Yellow Book). This IIA Audit Tool aims to align similar principles and point out key differences between the organizations’ recently updated standards.

This is a members’ only resource, available for download here

Australian Updates

1. Using AI to Assist with Scope 3 Emissions Reporting

From 1 January 2025, Australia’s largest companies are now required to report their Scope 3 emissions. The Australian Climate Leaders Coalition has released a new publication AI and Scope 3: Precision on the path to Net Zero emissions. The report looks at how AI can be used to increase integrity and efficiency in data collection and enhance emission reduction strategies, and includes real world case studies of organisations using AI to address their Scope 3 challenges. You can download the full report here.

2. EY Releases new Illustrative Financial Statements for June and December 2025 Interim Reporting

There’s been a lot going on in the markets of late that may impact a company’s interim financial statements (significant commodity price volatility, high inflation, changes in interest rates, geopolitical uncertainty and increasing energy prices) potentially impacting disclosures such as impairment of assets; expected credit losses; pensions; determination of fair values etc. As well as providing illustrative statements, this new release also includes commentary on macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty to assist entities when preparing their financials. You can download a copy of the Illustrative Financial Statements here.

In the news

1. Poor risk management practices raise Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing concerns for AUSTRAC (the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre): AUSTRAC flags AML/CTF concerns, orders audit of Mercedes Benz Financial Services | AUSTRAC

2. An act that I’m sure will have ethics and compliance professionals raising their eyebrows for a while to come: Trump’s plan to accept $400m plane from Qatar

From the Blogosphere

These blogs came across my desk this month, and both are well worth a read:

1. How to Handle Tension and Disagreement in Internal Audit – Internal Audit 360 by Hal Garyn

2. Report: Nearly Half of All Internal Audit Functions Are Underfunded – Internal Audit 360 by Joseph McCafferty

From the pencil case

New from Green Pen Consulting this month: Does your risk register looks like this? 🫣 If you’re looking for confidence that your risk register supports sound governance, GPC can help.

Until 30 June, GPC is offering a Risk Register Tune-Up – a fast, expert desktop review to help you check if your register is:

✅ Clear (concise, specific, and free of generic or ambiguous language – no fluff)

✅ Current (reflective of recent development in operations and context)

✅ Correct (technically sound in line with risk management best practices)

You’ll receive a concise 1–2 page report within 5 working days summarising: what’s working well; gaps or inconsistencies observed; and clear, practical recommendations for improvement.

For more information, costs, or to book in your review, email: claire@greenpenconsulting.com.au

Keep an eye out for these next month…

5-6 June: The Instytut Audytorów Wewnętrznych IIA Polska (IIA Poland) Annual Conference is on in Warsaw. More details here
17 June: The virtual IIA AuditSphere Small Audit Team Conference is on. This conference is ideal for small audit teams (typically those with fewer than 10 auditors). Find out more here
IIA Luxembourg is offering a number of training courses in June in July, in English and French. You can find out more about the courses on offer h e re

…And beyond

July: The draft version of the Organisational Behaviour Topical Requirement, previously expected to be released in May, is now expected to be released in July by the Global IIA for a 45-day period of public consultation.
July: Draft version of the Business Resiliency Topical Requirement is expected to be released by the Global IIA for review and comment
14-16 July: The 2025 International IIA Conference is being held this year in Toronto, Canada & virtually. With 12.8 CPE hours at the ready, you can find out more or register here
20-21 August: The ISACA Malaysia Chapter is presenting the Cybersecurity, IT Asurance & Governance Conference 2025 at the Sheraton Petaling Jaya Hotel. You can find the pricing, speakers and schedule here
3-5 September: The Instituto de Auditores Internos de Colombia is holding the XVII Internal Audit Congress in Bogota. For more information and to register, check out the event website here
13-15 October: The IIA PNG Pacific International Conference is being held in Port Moresby, PNG. To stay tuned for updates, refer to the IIA PNG website here or the IIA PNG LinkedIn group, here
18-20 November: The UAE IAA – UAE Internal Auditors Association, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), and ISACA are coming together to unite the top minds in internal audit, fraud examination, cybersecurity, compliance, and tech innovation with the second annual Audit, Anti-Fraud & I.T. Congress, at the Conrad Abu Dhabi Etihad Towers. You can register here

Joke of the Month!

What do auditors and vampires have in common during busy season?

They both avoid sunlight and survive on coffee.

That’s all for this month, folks.

If you have any key updates that you feel others should know about, feel free to send me a message and I’ll be sure to include them in next month’s Digest.

Until then, have a great June, and don’t forget to #getyournerdon!

Claire Berry, Founder & Director, Green Pen Consulting