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 in November, the CSSF sends by email to the persons in charge of human resources or, where appropriate, the primary contact person of every cabinet de révision agréé (approved audit firm) a file containing the data of the audit firms’ trainees, candidates benefitting from the 7 and 15 years exemption taken from the CSSF’s register as at 1 November of the year concerned.

The persons responsible will confirm or update the data with the trainees using the form “Candidate for the profession of the réviseurs d’entreprises – Update” and attaching the required supporting documents prior to 15 December of the year in question. This form and the documents to be attached must be submitted electronically to the CSSF via the portal Guichet.lu.

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 interactive forms by adding the required supporting documents.

As regards the annual procedure for the data confirmation or update, the CSSF proceeds as follows:

• for cabinets de révision agréés (approved audit firms), the CSSF sends mid-November via email the data included in the register of the CSSF at that time to the primary contact person. The latter must then confirm or update the data via Guichet.lu by using the relevant form and by adding the required supporting documents.
• for réviseurs d’entreprises agréés (approved statutory auditors), the CSSF sends mid-November via email the data included in the register of the CSSF at that time to all réviseurs d’entreprises agréés (approved statutory auditors). Every réviseurs d’entreprises agréé  must then confirm or update the data via Guichet.lu by using the relevant form 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 Appendix which includes statistical data on the number of tasks carried out and the annual declaration of the number of hours of continuing education.

The Annual Appendix must be sent irrespective of the update of the data by all cabinets de révision agréés (approved audit firms) and all réviseurs d’entreprises agréés (approved statutory auditors) via Guichet.lu (2 separate dispatches). For cabinets de révision agréés (approved audit firms), the following must be attached to this Annual Appendix: the table of claims registered by the professional and, for firms that audit public interest entities, the list of audited public interest entities (dedicated forms are available).

The CSSF expects that the Annual Appendix of the cabinets de révision agréés (approved audit firm) corresponds to the sum of the individual appendixes of the audit firm’s réviseurs d’entreprises agréés (approved statutory auditors).

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.