Procedure establishes the conditions and steps for authorizing legal entities as audit firms, at the written request of the legal representative of the legal entity, according to the Order of the ASPAAS President No. 87/2018 for approving the Norms regarding the authorization of financial auditors and audit firms in Romania, recognition of audit firms from other member states, withdrawal and reacquisition of authorization.

Conditions:

1. a) natural persons who perform statutory audit on behalf of the audit firm must be authorized as financial auditors in Romania, according to this law;

b) the majority of voting rights in the audit firm must be held by audit firms authorized in any member state or by financial auditors authorized in Romania;

c) the majority of the members of the administrative or management body of the audit firm, but no more than 75%, must be represented by audit firms authorized in Romania or in any of the member states or by financial auditors authorized in Romania;

d) if such an administrative or management body does not have more than 2 members, one of them must be an audit firm authorized in any of the member states or a financial auditor authorized in Romania;

2. the condition of good reputation as established by ASPAAS based on the provisions of art. 5 of Law no. 162/2017, which is analyzed by reference to the fulfillment of good reputation criteria, according to Order No. 89/2018 for approving the Norms regarding the good reputation of trainees in financial audit activity, financial auditors and audit firms;

3. their main activity must be the exercise of financial audit activity.

The authorization request signed by the legal representative of the legal entity is submitted to the competent authority ASPAAS together with the authorization file of the legal entity which contains the following documents:

a) the updated articles of association of the company, registered at the trade registry, which attests the structure of the administrative or management body of the audit firm, as well as the distribution of voting rights within it;

b) a current certificate issued by the trade registry, in original;

c) the registration certificate from the trade registry;

d) the list of natural persons who perform statutory audit on behalf of the audit firm authorized as financial auditors in Romania, signed by the legal representative of the legal entity;

e) the list of audit firms authorized in any member state or of financial auditors authorized in Romania who are associates/shareholders in the audit firm, signed by the legal representative of the legal entity;

f) the list of audit firms authorized in Romania or in any member states or of financial auditors authorized in Romania who are members of the administrative or management body of the audit firm, signed by the legal representative of the legal entity;

g) declaration on own responsibility signed by the legal representative of the legal entity regarding the observance by it of the good reputation criteria

h) any other document requested by ASPAAS in the analysis process.https://www.aspaas.gov.ro/autorizare-retragerea-autorizarii/formulare-utile/

Final document: Order of the ASPAAS President authorizing as audit firm issued, usually, within 45 days from the date of submission of the complete authorization file.

The authorization request for an audit firm in Romania is rejected in the following situations:

a) the authorization file is incomplete or the submitted documents are non-compliant, if the completion or rectification of the documents has not been made within 10 days from the request sent by ASPAAS;

b) for failure to meet the authorization conditions for audit firms provided by applicable legal provisions and the Norms regarding the authorization of financial auditors and audit firms in Romania, recognition of audit firms from other member states, withdrawal and reacquisition of authorization

In the procedure, it may be necessary to notify the applicant regarding the communication of some valid documents or conditions whose compliance/fulfillment is not confirmed by the submitted documents.