FSA tightens rules for auditors' client assets reports

It comes after the regulator found some auditors were providing ‘clean' reports despite firms committing serious breaches of client asset rules, covering the wrong chapters of the client asset sourcebook and failing to provide adequate details on issues and exceptions identified in their report. Among the new rules is the requirement for auditors to use a template for their reports and to deliver reports on client assets within four months from the end of the reporting period. Richard Sutcliffe, leader of the FSA's client assets unit, says: "Ultimately it is a firm's responsibility to...