Professional Oversight Board - Third country auditors

Third country auditors

Regulation of third country auditors

The Directive on Statutory Audit 2006/43/EC ('the Directive')¹, adopted by the European Union on 17 May 2006 for transposition into the national law of Member States by 29 June 2008, includes specific provisions on the regulation of the auditors of companies outside the European Union and the European Economic Area that have issued securities admitted to trading on EU regulated markets ('third-country audit entities').

The European Commission made a further Decision of 29 July 2008 providing for a transitional period in respect of certain third country auditors.

The Professional Oversight Board has statutory powers delegated by Government to set the detailed regulatory requirements within the framework set out in the Companies Act 2006²and the Statutory Auditors and Third Country Auditors Regulations 2007 (SATCAR)³.

The Professional Oversight Board has now published the detailed requirements for the registration of third country auditors in the UK including application forms. These follow as closely as possible formats agreed amongst EU Member States.

Registration of third country auditors

The Professional Oversight Board consulted earlier this year on the registration and regulation of third country auditors. We have published a summary of the responses and each response.

Consultation on third country auditors
Feedback to consultation and responses
Responses to Consultation on the requirements for regulation of third country auditors

¹Articles 45 and 46
²See in particular Chapter 5 of Part 42
³SI 2007/3494, as amended by the Statutory Auditors and Third Country Auditors (Amendment) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/499), and by the Statutory Auditors and Third Country Auditors (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/2639).