四大吃官司，在美中国公司可能退市

    上周，中国监管机构在华盛顿与美国上市公司会计监管委员会（PCAOB）和美国证券交易委员会（SEC）进行了会谈。会谈估计不是很顺利。 

    周一，美国证券交易委员会对四大国际会计师事务所中国业务以及德豪国际（BDO）中国成员所大华提起了行政诉讼，指控这些会计师事务所拒绝提供在美上市公司的审计工作文件，违反了美国证券法和《萨班斯－奥克斯利法案》（Sarbanes-Oxley Act）。在此之前，德勤（Deloitte）也由于相同原因被诉诸法庭，因为它拒绝提供东南融通（Longtop Financial Technologies）的审计工作文件。

    四大会计师事务所发布声明，把这个问题归咎于外交失败。 

    笔者相信，由此将启动一项议程：美国上市公司会计监管委员会可能取消这些中国会计师事务所的注册，禁止它们继续向美国证券交易委员会提交报告。除非问题得以解决，否则这可能导致在美国上市的中国公司退市。在华跨国公司也可能面临问题，因为美国上市公司会计监管委员会的条例要求在跨国公司审计中承担关键角色的审计公司必须在这个委员会注册。对于在中国拥有庞大业务的美国跨国公司而言，现实状况是四大会计师事务所中国业务在其审计中承担了关键角色。要想解决这个问题，他们可能需要将审计工作分由几家事务所承担，没有一家事务所承担关键角色。

    笔者估计下一步会看到美国上市公司会计监管委员会发布一项拟议规定，撤销它无法实施检查的会计师事务所的注册资格。笔者预计会在未来几周看到这一幕。美国上市公司会计监管委员会的拟议条例将征求公众建议，预计会产生激烈反响。当然，任何条例都必须经过美国证券交易委员会的审批批准。  

    译者：早稻米

    Chinese regulators had meetings in Washington last week with the PCAOB and SEC.  They must not have gone very well. 

    The SEC yesterday charged the Big Four and BDO in China with violations of U.S. securities laws and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for failing to provide audit working papers for U.S. listed companies.  This follows the earlier charges against Deloitte for the same issue, and the Court action against Deloitte for failure to produce the working papers for Longtop Financial Technologies. 

    The Big Four issued statements pointing blame at diplomatic failure. 

    I believe that this marks the beginning of the process to deregister Chinese accounting firms from the PCAOB and to ban them from practice before the SEC.  Unless resolved, this will likely lead to the delisting of U.S. listed Chinese companies. Multinational companies in China may also face issues since PCAOB rules require an auditor playing a substantial role in the audit of an MNC be registered with the PCAOB.  There are situations where the China Big Four are playing a substantial role in the audit of U.S. MNCs that have substantial operations in China. They may need to resolve this by dividing the work among several firms so that no single firm plays a substantial role.  

    I expect the next action we see is the PCAOB releasing a proposed rule that will revoke the registration of any accounting firm it cannot inspect. I expect that we see this in the next few weeks. The proposed PCAOB rule would be sent out for public comment, which should be vociferous. Any rule has to be approved by the SEC.