The Federal Audit Oversight Authority — RAB in German, ASR in French — is a public institution of the Swiss Confederation with its own legal personality, based in Berne. It decides on applications for the licensing of individuals and firms providing statutory audit services, and it supervises the firms that audit public interest entities. Standard-setting for the profession sits with the professional bodies; the FAOA's role is licensing, inspection and enforcement of quality.
What the FAOA publishes
- Licensing decisions and the public register of licensed auditors and audit firms
- Inspection findings for firms auditing public interest entities
- Circulars and guidance on licensing requirements and audit quality expectations
- Enforcement measures, including withdrawal of a licence
- Annual activity reports on the state of Swiss audit quality
Why it matters for compliance teams
For a Swiss listed company, the FAOA's inspection findings shape what its auditor will press on — quality issues identified across the market translate into additional scrutiny at the engagement level. The public register is also the authoritative way to confirm that a firm is licensed for the type of audit being commissioned.
Seqlense DOC indexes FAOA material alongside EXPERTsuisse's auditing standards and the European audit instruments Swiss groups also encounter, so audit committees can see oversight and standards in one corpus.