The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and the Federal Audit Oversight Authority (FAOA) of Switzerland have signed an agreement to cooperate on the regulation and supervision of audit firms.
The UK/Swiss Memorandum of Understanding is designed to facilitate public oversight, registration, inspections and investigations of auditors of companies that are subject to the regulatory jurisdictions of both parties. The two regulators said that, given the global nature of capital markets, by cooperating in this way they would avoid the ‘undue burden’ of overlapping supervision.
Paul George, the FRC’s executive director of conduct said: ‘The FRC and the FAOA have developed an excellent working relationship and this agreement will enable more specific cooperation, for example, in respect of the inspection of audit firms organised on a regional basis and the inspection of audits with significant Anglo-Swiss activities.’
A landmark tax agreement between the UK and Switzerland, announced in 2012 by Chancellor George Osborne, has come under fire after less than £900m of an anticipated £3.5bn in revenue was raised last year from attempts to locate undeclared UK assets held by Swiss banks.
