Reference
IAF and ILAC are now Global ACI.
On January 1, 2026, the International Accreditation Forum and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation were both replaced by a single body, Global ACI. Most published material in this industry has not caught up — including material published by accredited certification bodies this month. Here is what actually changed.
Last verified September 29, 2026
The change, in one paragraph
Two international cooperation bodies became one. IAF ran the mutual recognition arrangement for certification — management systems, products, persons. ILAC ran the equivalent for laboratory and inspection accreditation. As of January 1, 2026, both were replaced by Global ACI, Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated, under a single arrangement.
For almost everybody holding a certificate or an accreditation, the practical answer is that nothing needs doing. It matters mainly for accuracy: if a document, a procedure or a consultant's website still describes IAF as a current body, it is describing last year's landscape.
What did and didn't change
| Status | |
|---|---|
| Your ISO 9001, 14001, 45001, 13485 or 27001 certificate | Unaffected. Still valid. |
| Your laboratory's ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation | Unaffected. Still valid. |
| Your certification body's or accreditation body's standing | Unaffected. |
| ANAB, A2LA, IAS and other US accreditation bodies | Continue as before, now under the Global ACI arrangement. |
| IAF mandatory documents — MD 1, MD 5 and the rest | Moved across under existing numbering, and being republished under Global ACI numbers. ANAB treats the two as interchangeable (Heads Up 562). |
| Mutual recognition arrangement marks | IAF MLA mark stays valid until the Global ACI mark is fully adopted. Completion anticipated by January 1, 2029. |
| Who sets transition periods for revised standards | Global ACI, not IAF. This is the one that currently matters. |
| Any action required from you | None. |
The distinction the merger makes clearer
Because IAF and ILAC covered different things, the merger is a reasonable moment to restate a distinction that gets blurred constantly — including by firms that ought to know better.
Certification
A management system is certified. A certification body assesses your quality, environmental, safety or information security management system against a standard and issues a certificate. This is the old IAF side.
ISO 9001 · ISO 14001 · ISO 45001 · ISO 13485 · ISO 27001
Accreditation
A laboratory is accredited, never certified. An accreditation body gives formal recognition that the laboratory is technically competent to carry out specific tests or calibrations and to produce valid results. This is the old ILAC side.
ISO/IEC 17025 · ISO/IEC 17020 · ISO 15189
It is not pedantry. A laboratory that describes itself as "ISO 17025 certified" is telling an assessor it does not fully understand what it holds, and a consultant who writes it is telling you the same thing about themselves. If you are shopping for an ISO/IEC 17025 consultant, that phrase is a useful filter.
Where this actually bites
- Your documented procedures. If your quality manual, supplier requirements or certification procedures name IAF as a current body, that reference is dated. Not a nonconformity — but worth catching at your next document review rather than having an auditor mention it.
- The ISO 9001:2026 transition. Global ACI set it in Global ACI-TECH-3-TR, issued September 16, 2026: September 30, 2029, for organizations already certified, and March 31, 2028, after which new and initial accredited certifications may only be issued to the 2026 edition. We maintain a separate tracker with all five dates — most published material quotes only the last one.
- Assessing who knows their business. Several accredited certification bodies still had "the International Accreditation Forum will confirm transition arrangements" on their live pages in August 2026. That is not a scandal, but if you are choosing between advisers on the basis of current knowledge, published accuracy is one of the few things you can check yourself before you sign anything.
Common questions
Is my existing certificate still valid?
Yes. The change is at the level of the international cooperation body, not at the level of your certificate. Your certification body's accreditation, your accreditation body's standing, and your certificate all continue unaffected. Nothing about the merger requires you to do anything.
Is "IAF MD 5" still the right document to cite?
Yes — and this trips people up, so it is worth being precise. Legacy IAF mandatory documents moved to Global ACI under their existing numbering and are being progressively replaced by Global ACI equivalents over time. So IAF MD 5 is still the correct name of the document that governs certification audit time, even though IAF is no longer the correct name of the body. Both things are true at once. If someone tells you IAF MD 5 is obsolete because IAF no longer exists, they have conflated the document with the organization. ANAB confirmed the practical position on September 29, 2026, in Heads Up 562: IAF documents are being republished under Global ACI numbers as technically equivalent documents, and ANAB treats an IAF document and its Global ACI equivalent as interchangeable wherever Global ACI's cross-reference table confirms the equivalence.
What about the accreditation symbol on my certificate?
Nothing changes yet. ANAB confirmed on September 29, 2026, in Heads Up 562, that the IAF MLA and ILAC MRA marks remain valid until the new Global ACI mark is fully adopted, and that Global ACI is registering the new mark country by country. Completion is anticipated by January 1, 2029. In practice your accreditation body will tell your certification body when marks need to change, and your certification body will reissue or update certificates as part of normal cycles. It is not something you initiate, and it is not a reason to reprint anything early.
Does this affect my laboratory's ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation?
Same answer, different heritage. ILAC was the mutual recognition body for laboratory accreditation, and it was absorbed into Global ACI on the same date as IAF. Your accreditation remains valid, your accreditation body's standing is unaffected, and mark transitions follow the same timetable. The practical effect for most laboratories is that recognition of accredited results now runs through one arrangement rather than two.
Will this change the ISO 9001:2026 transition rules?
It changes who publishes them. Transition periods for a revised standard are set by the accreditation community, which is now Global ACI rather than IAF. For ISO 9001:2026 they now exist: Global ACI-TECH-3-TR, issued September 16, 2026, sets five dates ending September 30, 2029, and our tracker carries all five. ISO 14001:2026 received its own on September 14, 2026. If a page tells you the ISO 9001:2026 transition will be confirmed by the International Accreditation Forum, that page has not been updated this year.
Why does any of this matter to me?
Mostly it doesn't, and that is a legitimate answer. It matters in three narrow situations. If you are writing or auditing against a procedure that names IAF as a body, that reference is now dated. If you are evaluating a consultant or a certification body and their published material still describes the accreditation landscape as it was in 2025, that tells you something about how current their knowledge is. And for the ISO 9001:2026 and ISO 14001:2026 transitions, it tells you whose document actually sets the dates, which most of the coverage still gets wrong.
Sources
- ANAB — The transition to Global ACI — the January 1, 2026, replacement of IAF and ILAC, the migration of legacy mandatory documents under existing numbering, and the mark transition anticipated to conclude January 1, 2029.
- ANAB Heads Up 562, September 29, 2026 — IAF documents republished under Global ACI numbers and treated as interchangeable; the IAF MLA mark valid until the Global ACI mark is fully adopted.
- ANAB — certification vs accreditation — the formal distinction quoted above.
- IAF MD 5:2023 — still the governing document for certification audit time. See our cost derivation.
If any of this has moved since we last checked, tell us and we will correct it the same day.