The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
(PCAOB) has signed an agreement to jointly inspect Japanese
companies listed on the US stock exchange.
The PCAOB has been conducting its own
inspections of Japanese PCAOB registered firms since 2007 but will
now conduct them jointly with the Japan Financial Services Agency
(JFSA) and Japanese Certified Public Accountants and Auditing
Oversight Board (CPAAOB).
The agreement also includes provisions
governing the exchange of confidential information between the
oversight authorities, consistent with the provisions of the 2010
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Those
provisions amended the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to permit the
PCAOB to share confidential information with its non-US
counterparts under any circumstances.
The PCAOB has been carrying out joint
inspections with regulators in Australia, Korea and Singapore as
well as regularly conducting inspections of PCAOB registered firms
in other Asian countries including Indonesia and Malaysia.
“The PCAOB highly values the constructive
relationship it has enjoyed with the JFSA and CPAAOB over the
years. We are currently working on concluding similar cooperative
arrangements with other regulators around the world,” PCAOB
director of international affairs Rhonda Schnare said.
