Following two published exposure drafts and analysis of the comments received, the professional board of the International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC) approved the Code of Ethical Principles for Professional Valuers at its recent annual meeting in Hong Kong.

The new code has two main functions, according to an IVSC release. The first is to establish “five fundamental principles” that all IVSC members should have in their respective codes of conduct. The second is to provide a comprehensive code that members can adopt or adapt to their own.

Two months left to comment on competency framework. The IVSC has also issued a second exposure draft of A Competency Framework for Professional Valuers, which clarifies the paper’s purpose and proffered guidelines. “The intention is to establish a high level framework describing the competencies that the public could reasonably expect from a professional valuer,” the introduction notes. “This has been done by attempting to identify the essential characteristics of a professional valuer based on criteria that are common to [IVSC member organizations]. It is not intended to either endorse or criticize any Valuation Professional Organisation’s qualification or accreditation criteria.” Comments are due by Feb. 28, 2012.