Accounting firms in China should store their audit working papers on the mainland, according to interim measures published Friday that aim to strengthen oversight of data security management in the sector, reports Caixin. Firms will have to obtain approval if they want to export any audit working papers, according to the measures, which were published jointly by the Ministry of Finance and the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). They came after the draft rules were released in November and will take effect on Oct. 1.
Accounting firms are also barred from entering into any contracts that involve the provision of domestic project data to overseas regulatory authorities, it said.
The regulations were established under multiple laws, including the Cybersecurity Law, Data Security Law, and the Personal Information Protection Law, according to the document.