Federal Act
on the Licensing and Oversight
of Auditors
(Auditor Oversight Act, AOA)

The fol­low­ing ap­plies to audit firms that provide audit ser­vices to the com­pan­ies de­scribed in Art­icle 8 para­graph 1 let­ter b and that have bonds lis­ted on a Swiss stock ex­change on the date on which the amend­ment of 30 Septem­ber 2016 comes in­to force:

a. Any audit firm not ex­emp­ted from the li­cens­ing ob­lig­a­tion must be li­censed as an audit firm un­der state over­sight at the latest with­in six months of the amend­ment of 30 Septem­ber 2016 com­ing in­to force.

b. Any audit firm ex­emp­ted from the li­cens­ing ob­lig­a­tion must re­gister with the Over­sight Au­thor­ity or en­sure that in­vestors are ex­pli­citly in­formed that the audit firm is not un­der state over­sight at the latest with­in six months of the amend­ment of 30 Septem­ber 2016 com­ing in­to force.