It is not meaningful for auditors to apply a financial statement concept of materiality to an attestation engagement on internal controls. From a supervisory perspective, we would consider the existence of a series of such immaterial deficiencies to be useful information in assessing the quality of the internal and external audit process. We need to change this mindset in the auditing community.
During the negotiations Baffi advocated a system with a broad fluctuation band of 6 or 8 per cent about the central parity for all the participant countries. This idea was not disagreeable to the Bundesbank, which feared an inflexible exchange rate with partners marked by high inflation and low credibility.