Q1250. What auditing standards govern multinational public company financial report translations?

Answered by the NYC Visa & Translation certified translation team

Multinational public company financial report translations serve investors, regulators, and stock exchanges, and the auditing standards' framework shapes what the documents contain. The standards landscape: the financial statements are prepared under a reporting framework (IFRS, US GAAP, or the Thai TFRS — which converges with IFRS but with differences), and the audit is conducted under auditing standards (the ISAs, or the PCAOB's standards for US-listed companies) — the translation identifies both frameworks explicitly because they determine what the numbers mean. The documents: the audited financial statements with the notes (the notes are integral and often longer than the statements), the auditor's report (the opinion paragraph is the highest-stakes element — the opinion type, the basis, the key audit matters, the going concern language, each rendered with the standards' exact terminology), the management discussion and analysis, and the corporate governance and the sustainability reports that increasingly accompany the filing. The translation discipline: the figures are transcribed digit-exact with the presentation currency stated and never converted; the accounting policy descriptions use the framework's terminology (the IFRS standard numbers and names are referenced exactly); the auditor's report follows the ISA 700 series' structure (a restructured report translation misrepresents the opinion); and the comparative figures and the restatements are carried exactly as presented. Points that matter: securities filings carry liability for misstatement — the translation of a filing is reviewed by the issuer's counsel and often by the auditor before release; the Thai-listed company's official filing is the Thai version (the SET and SEC filings are Thai) — the English version is for investors and states its status; and the earnings release's translation timing (the market-sensitive information) follows the disclosure rules. Practice points: confirm which version is the official filing before releasing any translation.