The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has issued a new list of audit firms eligible to conduct audit of all the SECP-regulated entities.
The SECP has issued Circular No. 03 of 2024 on the appointment of auditors.
Moreover, Securities Exchanges, Futures Exchanges, Clearing Houses, and Depository Companies; Securities Brokers with Trading and Clearing Category license; Asset Management Companies or Pension Fund Managers or NBFCs with Assets under Management (AuM) of equal to or more than Rs. 50 billion and lending NBFCs (deposit-taking); Modarabas having asset size equal to or more than Rs. 1 billion; Collective Investment Schemes or Voluntary Pension Schemes or REIT schemes having asset size of equal to or more than Rs. 10 billion; Insurance, Reinsurance or Takaful Operators having total assets of more than Rs. 10 billion; Collateral Management Companies; Credit Rating Companies and Professional Clearing Member, shall only appoint auditors from the following list under this clause:
A. F. Ferguson & Co.; Muniff Ziauddin & Co.; Baker Tilly Mehmood Idrees Qamar; Nasir Javaid Maqsood Imran; BDO Ebrahim & Co; Rahman Sarfaraz Rahim Iqbal Rafiq; Crowe Hussain Chaudhury & Co.; Reanda Haroon Zakaria & Co.;EY Ford Rhodes.; Riaz Ahmad & Co; Grant Thornton Anjum Rahman; RSM Avais Hyder Liaquat Nauman; KPMG Taseer Hadi & Co.; Yousuf Adil; Kreston Hyder Bhimji & Co.; UHY Hassan Naseem & Co.
The Securities Brokers having license of Trading and Self Clearing category; Asset Management Companies or Pension Fund Managers or NBFCs with AuM of less than Rs. 50 billion; non-deposit taking NBFCs undertaking lending activities through mobile applications; Modarabas having asset size of less than Rs. 1 billion; Collective Investment Schemes or Voluntary Pension Schemes or REIT Schemes having asset size of less than Rs. 10 billion; Insurance, Reinsurance or Takaful Operators having total assets of Rs 10 billion or less, shall appoint audit firm from the following list under this clause or from the list provided under clause (i) above:
Amin Mudassar & Co.; Parker Russell-A. J. S; Fazal Mahmood & Co; PKF F.R.A.N.T.S.; Ilyas Saeed & Co; Riaz Ahmad Saqib Gohar & Co.; Junaidy Shoaib Asad; Rizwan & Co. 5. Mushtaq & Co; ShineWing Hameed Chaudhri & Co.; Naveed Zafar Ashfaq Jaffery & Co.; Tariq Abdul Ghani Maqbool & Co.
The Securities brokers having license under Trading-Only category; Futures Brokers of PMEX, Securities and Futures Advisers; Modarabas having asset size of less than Rs. 200 million; Lending NBFCs (other than deposit-taking); Insurance brokers, Reinsurance brokers; Third Party Administrators; Corporate Restructuring Companies, trusts created by Corporate Restructuring Companies and Share Registrars and Balloters, shall appoint any audit firm having Satisfactory QCR Rating from ICAP.
In case, if any entity mentioned is a Public Interest Company as per the Third Schedule of the Companies Act, 2017, the audit firm to carry out audit of such Public Interest Company shall also be required to be registered from Audit Oversight Board under section 36K(a) of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan Act, 1997, SECP added.
