Hong Kong's Financial Reporting Council said it supports mutual cross-border cooperation and will provide all necessary assistance and make appropriate arrangements within its mandate.

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Hong Kong's auditor regulator expressed support after the Chinese mainland's securities regulators announced that they had signed an audit regulatory cooperation agreement with the United States.

Hong Kong's Financial Reporting Council (FRC) supports mutual cross-border cooperation and will provide all necessary assistance and make appropriate arrangements within its mandate, according to a statement posted on its website.

As the independent auditor regulator in Hong Kong, the FRC has a statutory function to improve the quality of audit reports of accounting firms in Hong Kong, the statement said.

The FRC is committed to protecting investor rights, promoting public trust in the audit process and enhancing investor confidence in Hong Kong and other capital markets around the world.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the Ministry of Finance signed an audit supervision cooperation agreement with the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) on August 26 and will launch the cooperation in the near future, according to a statement posted on the CSRC's website.

As a next step, the two sides will conduct daily inspections and investigations of relevant accounting firms' cooperation under the cooperation agreement and make objective assessments of the effectiveness of the cooperation, the CSRC said.

If the follow-up cooperation can meet the respective regulatory needs, it is expected to solve the audit supervision issues of Chinese companies listed in the US, thus avoiding delistings from the US, according to the CSRC.

China, US regulators sign deal to avoid delistings from New York