Hong Kong Regulator Confident in Streamlining of Cross-Border Transfer of Mainland Audit Paper

Hong Kong’s accounting regulator is confident the process to receive audit reports from mainland China will be streamlined, according to Kelvin Wong, the chairman of the city’s Accounting and Financial Reporting Council (AFRC). He also described discussions in April between Beijing and Hong Kong officials aimed at fast-tracking the process as “smooth”.

Under a 2019 agreement with China’s Ministry of Finance, the AFRC can review audit documents of Hong Kong-listed Chinese mainland companies conducted by Hong Kong accounting firms that are stored in the mainland. But it takes at least nine months for the AFRC to receive audit documents from mainland authorities under existing procedures.