Public Register data update, annual declarations and monitoring of continuing education

In accordance with Article 12 of the Audit Law, the CSSF is the competent authority for the public oversight of the audit profession and, in this regard, it administers the public register in which all réviseurs d’entreprises agréés (approved statutory auditors) and cabinets de révision agréés (approved audit firms) are entered, including audit firms approved in another Member State registered in accordance with Article 6 of the above-mentioned law and third-country auditors and audit entities registered pursuant to Article 57 of this law.

Only réviseurs d’entreprises agréés (approved statutory auditors), cabinets de révision agréés (approved audit firms) and audit firms approved in another Member State (provided that the key audit partner carrying out the engagement on behalf of the audit firm is a réviseur d’entreprises agréé (approved statutory auditor)) are authorised to carry out statutory audits.

Registration as third-country audit entities and third-country auditors does not give approval to perform statutory audits pursuant to Article 1, point (34) of the Audit Law.

Any change to the information in the public register must be notified to the CSSF within eight working days following the change.

Réviseurs d’entreprises agréés (approved statutory auditors), cabinets de révision agréés (approved audit firms) and audit firms are required to inform the CSSF of any change to their administrative data within eight working days.

Third-country auditors and audit entities shall notify the CSSF of any change of information contained in the public register without undue delay from the moment the change occurred. The CSSF considers a time-frame of up to one month as appropriate to communicate any changes.

Every year, and before 31 January, the CSSF requests candidates to the audit profession to confirm or update their personal data via the corresponding procedures available on the eDesk Portal and adding the required supporting documents.

Every year, and before 31 January, the CSSF requests cabinets de révision agréés (approved audit firms), réviseurs d’entreprises agréés (approved statutory auditors) to confirm or to update their personal data via the corresponding procedures available on the eDesk Portal and by adding the required supporting documents.

Cabinets de révision agréés (approved audit firms), réviseurs d’entreprises agréés (approved statutory auditors) and audit firms must also fill in the Annual Declaration which includes statistical data on the number of engagements carried out and the annual declaration of the number of hours of continuing education.

The Annual Declaration is a separate procedure on the eDesk Portal. For cabinets de révision agréés (approved audit firms), the following must be attached to this Annual Declaration: the table of claims registered by the professional.

The CSSF expects that the Annual Declaration of the cabinets de révision agréés (approved audit firm) concerning the declared engagements correspond to the sum of the individual declarations of the audit firm’s réviseurs d’entreprises agréés (approved statutory auditors). Any discrepancy must be duly justified.

On an annual basis, all third-country auditors and audit entities are required to submit the following information:

• Form 6 : « Administration and Management » ;
• Form 7: « Third-Country auditors » ;
• Form 8: « Client Information » ;
• Declaration of honour – Legal persons ;
• Declaration of honour – Individuals (to be completed by all individuals listed in Form 6 and in Form 7) ;
• Description of the outcome of the last external quality assurance review;
• Last version of the Transparency report or equivalent report.

Pursuant to the Audit Law and the CSSF Regulation N°16-10 organising continuing education of réviseurs d’entreprises (statutory auditors) and réviseurs d’entreprises agréés (approved statutory auditors), the latter shall participate in appropriate programmes of continuing education in order to maintain their theoretical knowledge, their professional skills and their values at a sufficiently high level.

Both réviseurs d’entreprises and réviseurs d’entreprises agréés shall take at least 120 hours of continuing education per reference period of three years, of which a minimum of 20 hours per reference year. Additional minimum criteria per field and subject have been defined in the CSSF Regulation.

The CSSF is responsible for monitoring the activities of continuing education of the réviseurs d’entreprises agréés within the context of the quality assurance reviews and the annual declarations.

The IRE is responsible for monitoring the continuing education activities of the réviseurs d’entreprises.

In accordance with Article 3 of the CSSF Regulation organising continuing education, the CSSF may require supporting documents and the certificate of attendance of at least 60 out of the 120 hours required per reference period of three years.