Samil, Samjong, Deloitte face audit

By Kim Jae-won

The financial regulator said Thursday that it will conduct audits on the nation's three largest accounting firms in cooperation with its U.S. counterpart this year.

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said it will collaborate with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to audit Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers, Samjong KPMG and Deloitte Anjin.

The three accounting firms are subject to the audit because they provide accounting services for local companies listed on U.S. bourses under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

"By the U.S. act, accounting firms supervising companies listed on the U.S. stock market are obliged to register at PCAOB and get audits regularly," the FSS said in a statement.

The FSS said as of the end of March, 12 Korean accounting firms were registered at PCAOB, and the big three firms are subject to audits this year.

Samil's clients listed on American stock markets are KB Financial Group and KT. Samjong has six local clients listed on the bourses ― SK Telecom, POSCO, Korea Electric Power Corp., Shinhan Financial Group, LG Display and the Korea Finance Corp. Anjin has two U.S. bourse-listed clients ― Woori Finance Holdings and Gravity.

Meanwhile, the regulator said it will examine financial statements of 151 listed companies this year, up 70 percent from a year ago when the number reached 89. It will also inspect 10 accounting firms to check out the quality of their services. Accounting firms are often under fire for favoring their clients to keep contracts with them.

The FSS said it will strengthen accountability of the management over accounting fraud, reflecting the revised Outside Audit Law. The changed law has been effective since July 2014, enabling auditors as well as management to be accountable for accounting fraud.

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