Submit an annual audit report or negative declaration as a financial investment broker or fee-based financial investment advisor

As a fee-based financial investment advisor or financial investment broker, you must submit an annual audit report or alternatively a so-called negative declaration to your supervisory authority without being asked to do so

As a fee-based financial investment advisor or financial investment broker, you are obliged under Section 24 of the Ordinance on Financial Investment Brokerage (FinVermV) to submit either an audit report or a negative declaration to your competent licensing authority by December 31 of the following year without being asked to do so.

To do this, you must first have compliance with the legal obligations described in the FinVermV checked. These obligations include, for example, requirements for informing customers and documenting business transactions. The audit must be carried out by a suitable auditor, in particular

• Auditors, sworn auditors, auditing and accounting firms,
• auditing associations whose legal or statutory purpose includes the regular and extraordinary auditing of their members, provided they meet certain requirements
• other persons who, due to their previous training and experience, are in a position to carry out a proper audit in the respective business and who have been publicly appointed or licensed, e.g. tax consultants
• as well as associations of these persons.

(many minor editorial changes, typos, addition of "unsolicited" and third/fourth indent)

You select the auditor for the audit as part of your annual reporting obligations. The audit is carried out at your expense.

Auditors are unsuitable if there are concerns of bias, i.e. if there are circumstances that could jeopardize the independence of the auditor.

If you work exclusively for a sales company, you may submit a system audit report by an auditor instead of the individual audit report, which confirms the appropriateness and effectiveness of the internal control system of the sales company for compliance with the obligations by the affiliated traders for the audit period. However, an individual audit report must be submitted at the latest after 4 years, i.e. for the 4th year.

If you have not carried out any activities during the reporting period, you must submit a corresponding declaration (so-called negative declaration) without being requested to do so.

Local Chamber of Industry and Commerce

Local Chamber of Industry and Commerce

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In Lower Saxony, the Chambers of Industry and Commerce are responsible for accepting audit reports/negative declarations.

Action before the administrative court

Appeal (depending on state law, the appeal may be excluded)

• You send the audit report or the negative declaration in writing or electronically to the responsible supervisory authority.
• Following the review, you may receive a notification of fees.

Incoming applications will be checked by us promptly. If any documents are missing, we will contact you. As soon as all the documents are complete, we will usually process your audit report/negative declaration as soon as possible.

The fees for processing/reviewing the submitted documents vary depending on the IHK

hat happens if the audit report is not submitted at all or is submitted too late?

The traders concerned are obliged to submit the audit reports. Failure to comply with this obligation constitutes an administrative offense and can be punished with fines. Repeated breaches of the obligation to submit reports or breaches of audit-related obligations in accordance with Sections 11a to 23 FinVermV may result in fines and ultimately even the revocation of the license.

In accordance with § 24 Para. 2 FinVermV, an extraordinary audit can be ordered by the competent authority at the expense of the trader. In this case, the auditor is appointed by the authority. The requirements for such an audit may be met, for example, if there is reason to believe that the trader is unreliable.

not specified

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