This is a key step in resolving a long-running bilateral dispute, a Reuters report said.
In a seven-week inspection, US regulators got "good access" to review the auditing work done on Chinese companies listed in New York, a Reuters report said today, citing four people familiar with the matter.
This is a key step in resolving a long-running bilateral dispute, the report said, echoing a Bloomberg report earlier this month.
Inspectors from the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) who conducted the inspection in Hong Kong were given all the information they requested, one of the sources said, according to a Reuters report.
They were also allowed to print some documents to make it easier to review the information, despite some initial hesitation from Chinese officials, the source said.
The sources cautioned, however, that a broader review of the work done by the China-based auditors is still ongoing and that no decision has been made on whether the dispute can be considered closed.
In March and April of this year, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a growing list of companies at risk of delisting that could face delisting if the 2024 deadline set by the US Congress is not met.
Under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (HFCAA), the SEC has the authority to delist foreign-listed companies from exchanges if they fail to file reports required by the PCAOB for three consecutive years.
On November 4, Bloomberg reported that US audit officials completed the first round of on-site inspections of Chinese companies ahead of schedule, signaling progress in the process of preventing the delisting of hundreds of US-listed Chinese companies' stocks.
The work progressed despite requests from Chinese counterparts for certain information to be redacted, the report said.
"If the US-China audit woes are resolved, indeed it will be a positive for stocks, especially ADRs and tech," Bloomberg previously quoted Hong Hao, a partner at Grow Investment Group, as saying.
Stocks of US-traded Chinese companies have seen a notable rally this month, with the KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (NYSEARCA: KWEB) up 39 percent for the month.
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