Section 2: Control of the profession

Where they concern statutory auditors carrying out assignments with public interest entities, audits of their professional activity shall be carried out by auditors of the Haut conseil du commissariat aux comptes, under conditions that comply with the provisions of Article 26 of Regulation (EU) No 537/2014 of 16 April 2014. When they concern statutory auditors who do not carry out engagements with public interest entities, audits of their professional activity…

Auditors and any person participating in an audit assignment shall be appointed in such a way as to avoid any conflict of interest with the statutory auditors who are the subject of the audits.

To carry out audits, the High Council’s officers are empowered to: 1° Obtain from the statutory auditor any document or information, in any form whatsoever, relating to the statutory audit engagement or any other service provided by the statutory auditor to the persons or entities whose accounts it certifies. They may demand a copy; 2° Obtain from any other person information relating to the task of certifying the accounts or…

When they observe facts likely to be linked to money laundering or terrorist financing, the persons carrying out the controls provided for in Article L. 821-9 inform the department mentioned in Article L. 561-23 of the Monetary and Financial Code.

I.-For the purposes mentioned in 9° of I of Article L. 821-1, the High Council shall, at their request, communicate the information or documents that it holds or that it collects to the authorities of the Member States of the European Union exercising competences similar to its own. II.-The High Council may have the auditors referred to in Article L. 821-9 control operations that it determines, in order to respond…

For the purposes mentioned in 9° of I of Article L. 821-1, the High Council may communicate information or documents to the authorities of non-EU Member States exercising powers similar to its own, subject to reciprocity and on condition that the authority concerned is subject to professional secrecy with the same guarantees as in France. It may, subject to the same reservations and conditions, have the auditors mentioned in Article…

For the purposes mentioned in the two preceding articles, the High Council is exempt from the application of the provisions of loi n° 68-678 du 26 juillet 1968 relative à la communication de documents et renseignements d’ordre économique, commercial, industriel, financier ou technique à des personnes physiques ou morales étrangères.

The High Council may communicate confidential information to the Autorité des marchés financiers, the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution, the Autorité de la concurrence, the Banque de France, the European System of Central Banks, the European Central Bank and the European Systemic Risk Board, where such information is intended for the performance of their tasks under Regulation (EU) of 16 April 2014. It may request these same authorities…

I.-The statutory auditor shall perform his duties in accordance with the international auditing standards adopted by the European Commission under the conditions defined by Article 26 of Directive 2006/43/EC of 17 May 2006 on statutory audits of annual accounts and consolidated accounts, amending Council Directives 78/660/EEC and 83/349/EEC and repealing Council Directive 84/253/EEC, and, where applicable, with the French standards supplementing those standards adopted under the conditions set out in…

The High Council, on its own initiative or at the request of the Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice, the Autorité des marchés financiers, the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution or the Compagnie nationale des commissaires aux comptes, shall adopt the standards provided for in 2° of Article L. 821-1. The draft standards are drawn up by the commission provided for in III of Article L. 821-2…