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Accounting regulations
Accounting 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.