US, UK audit regulators to continue cross-border co-operation

Audit regulators in the United States and the UK agreed to continue co-operating on cross-border supervision of audit firms, the UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC) announced Thursday.

The agreement between the FRC and the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) does not contain an expiration date, but follows recent European Commission decisions that allow such agreements until July 31st 2016.

The agreement allows for joint work on inspections and exchanges of otherwise confidential information.

“The FRC and the PCAOB have developed an excellent working relationship in recent years, which has provided the basis for increasing confidence in one another’s regulation of major audit firms,” Paul George, executive director of the FRC’s Conduct Committee, said in a statement.

A data protection agreement signed by both parties describes the limitations on data that can be made available to the PCAOB, and the PCAOB’s responsibilities for protecting data from the UK.

—Ken Tysiac (ktysiac@aicpa.org) is a CGMA Magazine senior editor.