Norway Opens Path to Firm Inspections

State Board Report

October 2011

Norway’s Financial Supervisory Authority and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board entered into a cooperative agreement on September 14, 2011, that will enable the two regulators to have oversight of the audit work performed by each other’s public accounting firms in their respective jurisdictions. Since 2008 the PCAOB’s firm inspections had been blocked in Norway.

This agreement will allow the PCAOB to resume joint inspections of PCAOB-registered accounting firms that are located in Norway and that audit, or participate in audits of, companies whose securities trade in U. S. markets.