PCAOB Publishes List of Issuer Audit Clients of Non-U.S. Registered Firms In Jurisdictions where the PCAOB is Denied Access To Conduct Inspections

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) today published a list of more than 400 non-U.S. companies whose securities trade in U.S. markets, but whose PCAOB-registered auditors the Board currently cannot inspect because of asserted non-U.S. legal obstacles.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires auditors to be registered with, and regularly inspected by, the PCAOB if they audit the financial statements that issuers file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). To date, the PCAOB has conducted more than 1,300 inspections of registered firms in the United States and 33 non-U.S. jurisdictions. PCAOB inspectors review – and focus firms on remedying deficiencies in – audit work relied on by investors in U.S. markets.

Because investors in U.S. markets may be relying on the audit work of certain firms without realizing that those firms are presently uninspected by the PCAOB, the Board is publishing this list of issuers that have in 2009 or 2010 (through mid-April), filed financial statements with the SEC that were audited by a firm in one of these jurisdictions. The auditors of the issuers appearing on the list are located in China, Hong Kong, Switzerland and 18 European Union countries.

The PCAOB continues to work to eliminate obstacles to inspections in these jurisdictions.

• Issuer Audit Clients of Non-U.S. Registered Firms in Jurisdictions where the PCAOB is Denied Access to Conduct Inspections [The list can be found under Related Information on the right side of the page.]