Commentaries: Art. 10a

An audit firm under state oversight shall be sufficiently insured against liability risks if it has taken out insurance against economic loss or has equivalent financial security to cover its liability arising from the auditing of public companies.
The insured sum that is available to cover all claims made within a year must amount to at least:
1. 5 million francs in the case of audit fees in excess of 20 million francs;
2. 2 million francs in the case of audit fees of between 10 and 20 million francs;
3. 1 million francs in all other cases.
The basis for determining the level of the audit fees shall be all the audit fees that the audit firm under state oversight has posted for audit services to public companies in its most recently approved annual financial statements.
Paragraph 2 letter c applies to audit firms under state oversight that do not post any audit fees from public companies.
The Oversight Authority may increase the insured sum in individual cases if it is not commensurate with the business activity and associated risks and with the risk management carried out.
It shall decide in individual cases which forms of financial security shall be deemed to be equivalent in the sense of paragraph 1.
The audit firm under state oversight must inform the Oversight Authority without delay of any change to the insurance contract. This shall also apply by analogy to equivalent forms of financial security.