Useful document

1. Prudential supervision

The Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier is responsible for the prudential supervision of credit institutions, professionals of the financial sector (investment firms, specialised PFS, support PFS), undertakings for collective investment, pension funds, SICARs, securitisation undertakings issuing securities to the public on a continuous basis, regulated markets and their operators, multilateral trading facilities, payment institutions and electronic money institutions. It also supervises the securities markets, including their operators.

The CSSF took over the responsibilities of the Institut Monétaire Luxembourgeois (IML) which became the Banque centrale du Luxembourg (BcL) on 1 June 1998, as well as the responsibilities of the former Commissariat aux Bourses. The recent institutional changes in the structure and the practice of prudential supervision have not in any way altered the existing legal and regulatory framework.

The CSSF's prudential supervision of companies of the financial sector aims at the following:

• promoting a considered and prudent business policy in compliance with the regulatory requirements
• protecting the financial stability of the supervised companies and of the financial sector as a whole
• supervising the quality of the organisation and internal control systems
• strengthening the quality of risk management.

The CSSF examines all applications made by undertakings or persons seeking to carry out a financial activity in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and requiring the authorisation of the Minister responsible for the CSSF.

It acts solely in the public interest, ensures that the laws and regulations on the financial sector are enforced and observed and that  international agreements and European Directives in the fields under its responsibility are implemented.

The CSSF is empowered to  require any useful information to fulfil its missions from companies under its supervision.

The CSSF, as per its founding Law, participates on a Community and international level in negotiations relating to the financial sector and coordinates the implementation of governmental initiatives and measures to bring about an orderly expansion of activities of the financial sector.

2. Public oversight of the audit profession

The CSSF is the competent public oversight authority for the audit profession.

In this regard, the CSSF is hence responsible for granting the professional qualification of "réviseur d'entreprises" (statutory auditor) and "cabinet de révision" (audit firm), for the approval and registration of statutory auditors and audit firms which wish to perform statutory audits and other assignments which are reserved to approved auditors and audit entities, including the registration and the oversight of third-country auditors and audit entities, by the law of 18 December 2009 concerning the audit profession.

The CSSF is also responsible for the adoption of auditing standards and standards on professional ethics and internal quality control of approved audit firms and for continuing education.

More specifically, the CSSF is in charge of implementing a quality assurance system to which all statutory auditors and audit firms which are approved for carrying out statutory audits and any other assignments which are reserved to them by the law of 18 December 2009 concerning the audit profession are aubject to.