Annual Report 2016

38
Licensing | FAOA 2016
Figure 18
Total number of limited (LA) and ordinary (OA) audits performed 50 (Status: 31 December 2016)
Licence type Number LA Number OR 2016 2015
State-regulated audit firms 15,226 9,717 24,943 25,922
Other licensed audit firms 76,170 2,727 78,897 81,694
Total audits performed 91,396 12,444 103,840 107,616
Internal quality assurance
The internal quality assurance standard
that audit firms apply is disclosed
by way of self-declaration in the
FAOA register of auditors and analysed
annually by the FAOA.
Figure 19
Audit firm declarations as to applied standard of internal quality assurance at 31 December 2016
ISQC1 and ISA 220
Guidance of the professional associations
46
565
1’037
SQCS 1 and SAS 220
1’368
Exempt according to Art. 49 para. 2 AOO
Licence renewal
Audit firm licences are legally required
to be renewed every five years (Art. 3
para. 2 AOA). Audit firms whose licence
renewal is becoming due are
contacted by the FAOA around six
months before licence expiry and
asked to submit the necessary renewal
documentation for examination.
In the reporting year, the five-year
licences of 209 audit firms expired. A
total of 140 of these audit firms submitted
a licence renewal application
and received a renewed licence after
the FAOA had performed the appropriate
reviews. 17 percent of audit
firms whose licence renewal was
due voluntarily waived the renewal.
Even though the FAOA does not collect
data on the reasons for a waiver,
many audit firms have mentioned
structural or economic reasons
(e.g. owner retirement, firm restructuring,
cessation of audit activities)
for the waiver. 11 percent of audit
firms whose licence renewal was due
did not submit any documentation
to the FAOA and were deleted from
the register of auditors upon expi-
50 All data is derived from audit firm on-line
self-declarations. It should also be noted
that currently 99 percent of audit firms
have entered a relevant amount. The
FAOA assumes, however, that the majority
of the remaining audit firms are largely
inactive or do not provide audit services.