FEE survey on confidentiality of audit working papers

11 October 2002

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The European Federation of Accountants (FEE) conducted a survey on confidentiality issues arising from the possible implications of the Act.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 includes extra-territorial provision requesting any foreign public accounting firm that prepares or furnishes an audit report with respect to an issuer submitted to the US SEC, to register with the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. This firm would then be subject to the US Act, to the rules of the Board on Ethics and Auditing Standards, and to the rules of the US SEC. The same would apply to accounting firms that play a substantial role in the preparations of an audit report for particular issuers.

From the preliminary results it appears that the implementation of the US Act in several member states will face legal problems. When complying with section 104, 106 and to some extent 105 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, auditors in several EU countries could infringe a domestic law and be subject to criminal sanctions in their home country.

FEE survey

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