Icelandic Standards is an independent association whose role is the publication of Icelandic standards and the representation of Iceland in international and regional standards bodies. IST is the only national standards body in Iceland.

Four sectorial standardization committees operate under the auspices of IST: in the building sector, in the information technology sector, in the electrotechnical sector and in the fisheries sector.

IST has been a member of the European standards organizations CEN and CENELEC since 1988; an associate member of IEC since 1998; and is National Standards Organization in ETSI since 2003. IST also participates in INSTA, the inter-Nordic cooperation on standardization.