PCAOB Strikes Deal with Luxembourg

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has entered into a cooperative arrangement with Luxembourg’s audit regulator, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier of Luxembourg, relating to the oversight of audit firms subject to the regulatory jurisdictions of both regulators.

“This agreement with the Luxembourg audit regulator reflects the strength and depth of our relationships in Europe,” said PCAOB Chairman James R. Doty, who signed the agreement last week during a visit to the CSSF offices in Luxembourg. “We have a shared commitment to improve audit quality and protect investors through cross-border cooperation.” The agreement took effect immediately. Because audit work crosses borders, so too must regulators work together to fully protect investors from the risks inherent in international group audits. With this agreement, CSSF and PCAOB teams can now share their insights and jointly inspect audit firms whose dual-listed clients collectively have a market capitalization of about $33 billion.”

The PCAOB has reached similar agreements in the European Union with Greece, Denmark, Hungary, Sweden, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. In addition, the PCAOB has agreements with Switzerland and Norway, and with several regulators in North America, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.

The agreement with the CSSF provides a framework for joint inspections and allows for the exchange of confidential information in accordance with the provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.

Those provisions amended the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to permit the PCAOB to share confidential information with its non-U.S. counterparts under certain circumstances. An agreement on data protection is also part of the cooperative arrangement.

“This agreement is a reflection of the stable framework for cooperation that the PCAOB has established with its partners in the European Union,” said PCAOB director of international affairs Bruce Wilson in a statement. “We are pleased with the progress and look forward to the European Commission’s renewal of the Adequacy Decision to promote longer term stability to this cooperation on behalf of global investors on U.S. and EU markets.”

In 2010, the European Commission adopted an Adequacy Decision that permits audit regulators in the European Union to conclude cooperative agreements with the PCAOB, and renewed that decision in 2013. The decision must be renewed again by July 2016.

Since the inception of its non-U.S. inspection program in 2004, the PCAOB said it has conducted inspections in 45 non-U.S. jurisdictions. Wherever possible, the PCAOB seeks to coordinate its inspections with the local authorities to enhance cooperation and the sharing of information.

Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the PCAOB oversees and inspects all accounting firms that regularly audit public companies whose securities trade in U.S. markets. The Act requires the PCAOB to conduct inspections annually for firms that regularly provide audit reports for more than 100 issuers, and at least triennially for firms that regularly provide audit reports for 100 or fewer issuers.

More than 900 of the approximately 2,300 audit firms currently registered with the PCAOB are located outside the United States, including four registered firms in Luxembourg.