Seven departments including the Ministry of Finance ("MOF") have recently issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Work Related to Digitization of Confirmation Letters Issued by Accounting Firms (the "Opinions").
The Opinions call for efforts to actively adopt policy measures, encourage accounting firms, banks and enterprises to make concerted efforts, speed up the digitization of confirmation letters issued by accounting firms, improve the audit quality, and promote the modernization of the governance system and governance capacity of the State. To this end, the Opinions set forth six measures including promoting the centralized digitalization of confirmation letters issued by accounting firms and promoting banks to adopt the approach of centralized digitalization of confirmation letters. Among others, the Opinions require that accounting firms shall effectively improve the level of integrated management, actively boost the establishment of a center for confirmation letters or adoption of a centralized mode for confirmation letters, carry out centralized handling of confirmation letter-related business by a department on a unified basis, and strengthen control over such processes as request, acceptance, preservation, statistics and analysis of confirmation letters. At the same time, relevant audited entities, especially listed companies, NEEQ-listed companies, corporate credit bond issuers, state-owned enterprises, financial companies, and other market entities related to public interest, shall actively cooperate with the digital transformation of confirmation letters.