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recommendations and opinions are provided by the Conseil National de la
Comptabilité (CNC), a consultative body placed under the authority of
the Ministry of Finance and comprising representatives of the OEC and
the CNCC, practicing accountants and auditors, accounting associations,
industrial and service sector delegates, civil servants and a number of
trade union members. The CNC is consulted to seek a prior opinion on all
draft legislation associated with accounting, be it national or EC in
origin.
In addition, the French Stock Exchange Commission (Commission des
Opérations de Bourse - COB) issues additional rules for listed companies
and has been particularly assertive in promoting improved disclosure
of published information since its creation in 1967. Since the first
wave of French privatisations in 1986, boosting the number of individual
owners of shares in France from 1.7 million to 5.5 million today, the
COB has consistently called for more transparent and accessible financial
information to be issued by French corporations.
French accounting regulations, in addition to having origins in Company
law, is also influenced by the Code de Commerce, containing certain
accounting requirements applicable to all commercial enterprises. The
Code sets out a number of broad requirements for the maintenance of
legal accounting books and the financial statements to be prepared.
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