The Public Company Accounting Oversight
Board (PCAOB) and the Netherlands Authority for the Financial
Markets (AFM) entered into an agreement for joint inspections that
will be officially sealed in January.
The arrangement includes exchange of
confidential information between the two oversight bodies
consistent with provisions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street
Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
However, it does not allow the PCAOB to
share confidential information with its non-US counterparts.
The PCAOB has already signed
agreements with Switzerland and Norway, as well as with regulators
in North America, the Middle East and Asia.
There are currently more than 900 audit
firms outside the US registered with PCAOB, 15 of which are in the
Netherlands.
“The agreement with the Netherlands is
a key step forward in our effort to ensure effective cross-border
audit oversight. We are pleased that we have been able to overcome
obstacles to conducting inspections in certain European Union
Member States, first with the United Kingdom and now with the
Netherlands,” PCAOB chairman James Doty said.
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