Chile Financial Market Commission issues single rulebook for external auditing firms and tightens suitability standards for audits of key supervised entities

The Chile Financial Market Commission has issued a Regulatory Compendium for External Auditing Firms that consolidates the rules for the sector into a single framework and updates them to reflect newer international standards and practices. The regime applies proportionately, requiring firms that audit a specified group of supervised entities, where the reliability of financial information is most relevant, to meet additional suitability standards, including a knowledge accreditation exam for audit teams. The compendium removes the requirement for external auditing firms to be organized as partnerships, updates internal regulation requirements to reflect new suitability expectations and matters such as ethics and due diligence, and sets a differentiated framework for the technical suitability of staff involved in audits of certain CMF-supervised entities. In parallel, General Rule No. 30 is amended to clarify that a board of directors may propose that shareholders ratify the external auditing firm if the contract approved on the agreed terms remains in force. The instructions took effect on issuance, although the compendium sets specific deadlines for firms to update their registry information and comply with new internal regulation and ongoing reporting requirements. The measure is the first in a broader CMF effort to modernize and systematize rulebooks for other sectors, including funds and general fund managers, stock exchanges and intermediaries, and risk rating agencies.