Registration of third-country audit entities

A registration with the AFM is needed to provide audit reports concerning the annual or consolidated accounts of a company incorporated outside the European Union or the European Economic Area whose transferable securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market in the Netherlands.

The European Commission has clarified its Decision of 29 July 2008 concerning a transitional period for audit activities of certain third-country auditors and audit entities by stating that the third countries referred to in the annex to this Decision must be interpreted as the home countries of the audit clients rather than the home countries of the auditors or audit entities. Therefore the transitional period is granted to third-country auditors and audit entities that audit the annual or consolidated accounts of companies that are located in one of the third countries referred to in the annex to the Commission Decision, irrespective of the location of the auditor or audit entity itself. This implies that all auditors or audit entities, including those auditors and audit entities from EU Member States, can qualify as third-country auditors or audit entities that must register themselves as such either under Article 45 of the Directive or under the transitional period of the Commission Decision.