Auditors and Information Sharing: An Initial Exploration

Auditors are an important part of the regulatory networks that function to govern businesses. They perform the important function of verifying information published by businesses. In performing this function they may discover information that they wish to share. Both regulatory norms and customary norms govern the information sharing practices of regulators. This paper seeks to begin to explore these norms, considering when regulatory norms suggest auditors can share information and when customary practice shows that they do share information. By considering what information auditors may wish to share, when they may wish to share it, how they share such information and normative questions of whether such information should be shared, a conversation about the governance of information sharing by these important regulatory actors can be begun, and issues for further examination can be set out