Looking Ahead to 2025
Serving on an audit committee in 2025 might be daunting even if the committee could be assured that it would not have to take on any added responsibilities in the new year. After all, even the most basic perennial responsibilities of audit committees, such as overseeing the audit of the financial statements and compliance with […]
Krista Parsons is a Managing Director and Bob Lamm is an Independent Senior Advisor at Deloitte LLP. This post is based on their Deloitte memorandum.
Serving on an audit committee in 2025 might be daunting even if the committee could be assured that it would not have to take on any added responsibilities in the new year. After all, even the most basic perennial responsibilities of audit committees, such as overseeing the audit of the financial statements and compliance with financial reporting requirements, are far from routine. However, no such assurance is likely to be forthcoming. In fact, as audit committees contemplate the onset of a new year, the number and complexity of new issues and concomitant responsibilities seem likely to grow.
Moreover, 2025 may be a particularly busy year. With the change in administration, we could see significant changes in regulatory priorities, financial reporting, and corporate governance. Additionally, the increasing use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), ongoing cybersecurity threats, and a renewed focus on enterprise risk management at a time of geopolitical uncertainty will likely keep audit committees busy. And, to the extent that companies face unanticipated risks and challenges, it seems almost inevitable that audit committees will be viewed as the default “home” for such developments.
Given this background, audit committees would be well advised to consider a wide variety of continuing and emerging issues that they may need to deal with in 2025, bearing in mind that a complete list of such issues would be far longer than can be addressed in this publication.
