As a result of the Accounting Control Act (RL-KG; Rechnungslegungskontrollgesetz) passed by Austrian legislators in 2013, the Financial Market Authority (FMA) has been given the role of an enforcement authority to be responsible for the accounting control of financial reports published by listed companies. When verifying the compliance of accounts with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the FMA will draw on assistance from the Austrian Review Panel for Financial Reporting (OePr), a body approved by the Federal Ministry of Finance. The review will be carried out for the first time for financial statements covering the 2013 financial year. Thus, following the preliminary work completed last year, actual review activities have been launched as of 2014.
The goal of accounting enforcement, according to FMA Executive Directors Helmut Ettl and Klaus Kumpfmüller, is “to ensure that important financial information published by companies in the Austrian capital market is accurate and internationally comparable”, so that “we are able to further strengthen the capital market as well as the capacity of Austrian issuers to compete in international markets”. The FMA’s efforts in this case are aimed specifically at preventing any violation of standards.
Accordingly, six priority areas to be reviewed in accounting control have been defined jointly together with the FMA’s European sister authorities. These priorities have been published on the FMA website at https://www.fma.gv.at/en/checking-of-financial-reporting-enforcement/. Impairment is at the top of the list of priorities. This applies to the valuation of bank liabilities as well as to the impairment of goodwill and intangible assets in the industrial sector. Other priorities result from new, especially critical standards, including the new standard on fair value measurement.
The priorities concern only regular reviews held according to a review plan specified each year. About 30 individual reviews have been scheduled for 2014. On the other hand, a special review held due to public interests can examine any area, where there are specific grounds for doing so.
With the launch of accounting enforcement operations at the beginning of 2014, the FMA activated a confidential ‘whistleblower hotline’ (0800 249 900) for confidentially reporting any critical information concerning listed companies to the supervisory authority.
Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-6006
+43/(0)676/882 49 516