EU, U.S. to Cooperate on Audit Regulation

In Washington yesterday, EU Internal Market and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Chairman Mark Olson agreed to launch discussions on boosting EU-U.S. cooperation in the public oversight of auditing firms, with the goal of full reliance on each others' oversight systems by 2009. Commissioner McCreevy said, “Equivalence does not require systems and standards to be identical but simply to be robust enough to ensure investor confidence… Sending inspectors abroad is a costly and complex exercise. We need to establish a system based on mutual trust which avoids duplication." Commissioner McCreevy also met with SEC Chairman Christopher Cox and Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke while in Washington.

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