Crown Dependencies’ auditor oversight assessed as equivalent by EU

The Financial Supervision Commission (“the Commission”) is pleased to announce that the European Commission has confirmed that the Crown Dependencies of the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey have been assessed as having equivalent auditor oversight and quality assurance systems to those of EU Member States (under Article 46(1) of the Statutory Audit Directive).

Please see the relevant decision.

For the avoidance of doubt, auditors are not generally subject to licensing, registration or supervision by the Commission or any Isle of Man Government body. However, where auditors perform the audit of certain types of companies (Isle of Man incorporated companies traded on specific EU regulated markets) they must be registered with the Commission as “Recognised Auditors”.

Auditors that do not audit Isle of Man companies traded on the EU regulated markets do not need to be registered as Recognised Auditors and such auditors do not have lesser status than those that are registered as Recognised Auditors. Also, the register of Recognised Auditors should not be interpreted as a list of the only audit firms that are acceptable to the Commission, or any Government body.