Accountants Act 2004 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 7 · Miscellaneous
59B. Providing information to foreign audit regulators
Feedback & supportLast amended by an amending law of 2025.
The Authority may, with the approval of the Minister, enter into an arrangement with a foreign audit regulator under which —
one party (A) to the arrangement agrees to provide to the other party (B) in accordance with the arrangement, regulatory information in A’s possession if the information is required by B for the purposes of B’s performance of any of B’s audit oversight functions; and
B may, with A’s consent —
use any regulatory information which B receives from A for the purposes of B’s performance of any of B’s regulatory functions other than B’s audit oversight functions; or
provide any regulatory information which B receives from A to another regulatory authority (C) in the same country or territory as B for the purposes of C’s performance of any of C’s regulatory functions.
Every request by a foreign audit regulator (D) for regulatory information from the Authority in accordance with an arrangement under subsection (1) —
must be made to the Registrar;
must specify —
the regulatory information requested by D; and
the purpose and reasons for which the regulatory information is required by D; and
must provide any information or document that the Registrar may require.
The Registrar may grant a request from D made under subsection (2), subject to any conditions that the Registrar may impose, if the Registrar is satisfied that —
Registrar
“Registrar” means the Registrar of Public Accountants appointed by the Authority under section 7(1)(a) and includes a Deputy Registrar and an Assistant Registrar appointed under section 7(1)(b);
D has complied with the applicable terms of the arrangement mentioned in subsection (1) for the making of the request;
D is able to comply with the terms of the arrangement that are applicable to the request; and
if in granting the request, the Registrar has imposed one or more conditions, D is able to comply with that condition or those conditions.
The Registrar may refuse to provide any regulatory information to D for any reason, including if the Registrar is satisfied that D has failed to comply with —
any terms of the arrangement; or
any condition imposed under subsection (3),and does not take steps to rectify the non-compliance.
In this section —
“audit oversight function” means —
in the case of the Authority — a function of the Authority specified in section 3; and
in the case of a foreign audit regulator — a function corresponding to a function of the Authority specified in section 3;
“foreign audit regulator” means any authority or regulator of a country or territory other than Singapore that exercises any or all of the functions corresponding to the Authority’s functions specified in section 3;
“regulatory information” means —
in the case of the Authority — any information in relation to the Authority’s audit oversight function, and includes any information relating to a public accountant or an accounting entity obtained by the Authority under this Act; and
public accountant
“public accountant” means an individual who is registered or deemed to be registered in accordance with this Act as a public accountant;
in the case of a foreign audit regulator — any information in relation to the foreign audit regulator’s audit oversight function, and includes any information relating to a person regulated by the foreign audit regulator under that function and obtained by the foreign audit regulator in respect of that function.