On 5 December 2012 the National Council passed the Financial Reporting Enforcement Act (RL-KG; Rechnungslegungskontrollgesetz). It is intended to strengthen the capital market as well as the international competitiveness of issuers in Austria. The Financial Reporting Enforcement Act introduces a procedure for checking companies’ financial reporting in order to guarantee the reliability of companies’ capital market information. Errors are intended to be addressed in a preventative manner. If errors nevertheless still occur, then the capital market should be informed about them.
Under the Financial Reporting Enforcement Act the operatively active enforcement bodies are the Financial Market Authority as the financial reporting control authority as well as an inspection body organised under private law.
The Financial Market Authority has published the following documents (in German only) containing information about the companies affected and to assist with preparations for forthcoming inspections: