FEE responds to US PCAOB on Registration and Oversight of Foreign Accounting Firms

31 March 2003

The European Federation of Accountants (FEE) has written to the Acting secretary of the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), Mr Boster, commenting upon its recently proposed registration system, and on the appropriate oversight of accounting firms located in Europe.

FEE strongly supports the transatlantic regulatory dialogue between the European Commission, and the US authorities, with a view to establishing principles and criteria for oversight, and such matters as inspection, investigation and discipline.

“A principles based approach, with strict criteria and sufficient detail, allows for a variety of mechanisms of equivalent quality to provide consistent public oversight to achieve the shared objective of restoring confidence in financial reporting” the letter states. “FEE is strongly of the opinion that discussion with European authorities will provide the PCAOB with a possible means of relying on home-country regulation as far as Europe is concerned,”

Letter

© FEE