Revisors uafhængighed: Genoprettelse af tilliden til revisor igennem EU Kommissionens forordning for revisors uafhængighed

Abstract

Throughout time there have been many economic fluctuations both national and international. In the recent years the extents of the economic scandals have been huge. Especially Enron, Arthur Andersen, WorldCom and Lehman Brothers fall into mind, when you ask people about recent economic scandals. The fall of enormous companies and the recent economic crisis have raised questions, whether the accountants have fulfilled their duty as the representative of the general public. The criticism has increased since the rise of the financial crisis in 2008. The critics believe, that the extent of the crises was caused by poor corporate governance in financial institutions and by a lack of present auditors. Many have been baffled by, how economic suffering financial companies have received audit reports with no additional information and months later gone bankrupt. Cases like this have been the foundation for most of the criticism towards the accounting profession. Further, this has caused lack of the public’s trust in the financial reports. Therefore, The European Commission has decided to tighten the regulation of the auditors work and therefore they have posted a new regulation in the summer of 2014. In this regulation The European Commission wish to tighten the rules to obtain a more independent auditor. Their hope is that the trust in financial reporting will be restored. The regulation especially includes three rules which are:  Mandatory audit firm rotation  Prohibition of non‐audit services  Audit fee rules The European Commission wishes to accommodate the lack of auditor independence, but the question is whether the regulations will have the desired output and if not, which effect will it have? One can question the design of the rules but another question would be, whether the economic crisis has stabilized itself. The financial crises began in 2008 and the final regulation was released in 2014, no less than 6 years later. Is there still a need for further regulation or should the regulation be redesigned to fit the contemporary situation? The new regulation will be implemented and only time will show the effect. Even though it is inevitable, that The European Union has to take some action after a major crisis the approach can be questioned.