French Monetary and Financial Code
In forceEach credit institution, finance company or investment firm is audited by at least two statutory auditors, under the conditions defined in Book VIII of the Commercial Code. These statutory auditors must not represent or belong to firms with legal, professional, capital or organisational links between them. They carry out their activities under the conditions set out in Book VIII of the Commercial Code and certify the annual accounts. They verify that the information provided to the public is accurate and consistent with the financial statements.
However, when the balance sheet total of a credit institution, finance company or investment firm is less than a threshold set by the Autorité des normes comptables (French Accounting Standards Authority) after obtaining the opinion of the Comité consultatif de la législation et de la réglementation financières (French Advisory Committee on Financial Legislation and Regulation), the certification referred to in the previous paragraph may be performed by a single statutory auditor. Where this condition is met, and the company is subject either to public accounting rules or to a specific system for approving its accounts that offers guarantees deemed sufficient by the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution, the latter may decide to waive the certification requirement referred to in the previous paragraph. These exemptions do not apply where the credit institution, finance company or investment firm is required to prepare consolidated accounts.
The statutory auditors must be independent of the credit institutions, finance companies, investment firms, parent undertakings of finance companies, financial holding companies or mixed financial holding companies they audit. The provisions of Book VIII of the Commercial Code apply to the statutory auditors of any credit institution, finance company, investment firm, parent undertaking of a finance company, financial holding company or mixed financial holding company.
