Who is this article for?

Users wanting to learn more about WRDS Europe.

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This article answers the most commonly asked questions for WRDS Europe

General

What datasets are included with the Europe subscription?

The following datasets are available with a Europe subscription:

What companies are included in the Europe databases?

The Europe databases cover public companies with equity listed on EEA, UK, and Swiss regulated exchanges, as well as public companies with equity listed on select EEA and UK unregulated exchanges.

Europe – Audit Fees

What is the equivalent of Feed 04 (AUDIT_FEES_RESTATED) for European companies?

Use Feed 71 (EUROPE_AUDIT_FEE), which provides both original and restated fee amounts. The indicator fields are defined as follows:

• ORIGINAL_FEE = 0 — initial disclosure
• RESTATED_FEE = 1 — value updated in a later filing

Feed 71 mirrors the structure and purpose of Feed 04.

How do I extract one final audit fee per company-year for European companies?

To produce a single, authoritative company-year total:

1. Pull Feed 71 (EUROPE_AUDIT_FEE).
2. Group by COMPANY_FKEY and FISCAL_YEAR.
3. Sum across auditors if needed or retain one row if MATCHFY values match.
4. Use the indicator fields to select restated or original fee values as appropriate.

Do Europe Audit Fees require English-language filings?

No. Audit fee disclosures are collected regardless of language. Fee data appearing only in a local-language filing is still included in the dataset.

What unique identifier links the Europe Audit Fee data (Feed 71) to the Europe Audit Opinion data (Feed 72)?

To match fees for the auditor who signed the opinion, construct a composite key by concatenating ENTITY_MAP_FKEY, AUDITOR_FKEY, and AUDIT_FEE_FISCAL_YEAR_END from Feed 71 (EUROPE_AUDIT_FEE) with ENTITY_MAP_KEY, AUDITOR_LIST, and OPINION_FISCAL_YEAR_END from Feed 72 (EUROPE_AUDIT_OPINION). Note that when more than one auditor appears in Feed 72, the auditor keys will need to be separated before joining.

Europe – Audit Opinions

What are the types of audit opinions?

There are four types of audit opinions:

• Unqualified Opinion – A "clean" opinion and the most common type. Issued when the auditor determines that financial records are fairly presented and maintained in accordance with applicable regulations, with no material misstatements identified.
• Qualified Opinion – A modified opinion issued when a material misstatement exists in the financial statements but is not pervasive. Typically involves a single isolated issue.
• Disclaimer of Opinion – Issued when the auditor was unable to obtain sufficient appropriate evidence to express an opinion. Common causes include management's inability to produce supporting documentation, intentional withholding of financial records, or a breakdown in communication between management and the auditor.
• Adverse Opinion – A modified opinion issued when the auditor concludes that the financial statements are materially misstated and the misstatements are pervasive. Financial statements carrying an adverse opinion are regarded as unreliable.

Why is AUDIT_OPINION_TYPE available in the Europe Audit Opinions dataset (Feed 72) but not in the SEC opinion databases?

Unlike SEC-registered companies, European companies more commonly issue financial statements carrying a qualified, adverse, or disclaimed audit opinion, making opinion type a meaningful and regularly populated field in the European dataset.

What is the methodology for recording partner names on European audit opinions?

Partner names are recorded in the order they appear in the audit opinion, left to right. The left-most name is designated as the lead partner unless the opinion explicitly identifies one — in which case the explicitly named partner receives that designation. The signing partner name and signature date are also captured for each record.

Earlier records carry lower accuracy for lead partner designations, as explicit lead partner identification was not consistently available at the time of collection.

Where can I find the name of the signing or engagement partner for European companies?

Partner data is stored in supporting tables and is not available through the WRDS web query form. It must be accessed via WRDS SAS Studio using the following tables:

• int_audit_opinion_auditor.txt — one row per opinion
• int_audit_opinion_partner.txt — one row per partner per opinion

Select the table that corresponds to the appropriate level of analysis — opinion level or partner level.

Europe – Auditor Changes

Does the Europe Auditor Changes database include prospective or potential auditor changes?

No. Only confirmed auditor changes that have been formally disclosed by the company are included. Prospective, exploratory, or under-consideration changes are not collected. Specifically:

• Changes described as "possible," "proposed," or "anticipated" are not included.
• If a company ultimately retains the same auditor, no record is created.
• Unlike some U.S. disclosures (e.g., 8-K Item 4.01), European filings generally do not provide insight into preliminary auditor discussions, and the Europe dataset follows this methodology.

Note that even when a company does not formally disclose an auditor change, the appearance of a new auditor's signature on the audit opinion is treated as evidence of a change and recorded as an imputed change.

How do I merge Europe Auditor Change data with Europe Audit Opinions or Europe Audit Fees?

There is no direct link between the Auditor Change and Audit Opinions or Audit Fees datasets. Because auditor changes are not necessarily tied to a specific annual filing or fiscal year end, the records do not align straightforwardly. One approach is to construct an approximate match using the CONCAT function in Excel to create a composite key from multiple columns. Using the Dismissed or Engaged Effective Date fields is recommended for this purpose.

Europe – Key Audit Matters

How do I obtain the opinion fiscal year end for European Key Audit Matters (KAMs)?

Download data from both the Europe Audit Opinions (Feed 72) and Europe Key Audit Matters (Feed 77) datasets, then merge using AUDIT_OPINION_KEY in Feed 72 and AUDIT_OPINION_FKEY in Feed 77.

Do Europe KAMs require English-language filings?

Yes. Europe KAMs cover EEA-listed and Swiss equity issuers only when the audit report is available in English. Non-English audit reports are not collected, and availability varies by issuer.

What does IS_EU_REGULATED_SUBMARKET mean? Does a value of 1 guarantee inclusion in the KAM dataset?

No. IS_EU_REGULATED_SUBMARKET = 1 indicates the issuer is associated with a regulated market framework but does not guarantee that the specific submarket is in scope, that an English audit report exists, or that the KAM was collected at the time of the data extract. This field should be used as contextual information rather than as an inclusion rule.

Why do some Europe Audit Opinion records not match to Europe KAMs?

Common reasons include:

• Language: Only English audit reports are collected; non-English KAMs will not appear.
• Timing: Past backlogs or deferred collection may result in temporary gaps.
• Market scope: IS_EU_REGULATED_SUBMARKET = 1 indicates a regulated framework but does not guarantee English availability or inclusion.
• Matching fields: ISIN is not used as a primary identifier — company name or ticker should be used for reconciliation.
• Filing duplicates: Opinions may appear across multiple filings; filtering by form type or date may inadvertently exclude valid KAMs.

Recommended checks include confirming English availability, re-pulling fresh data, matching by company name or ticker, and reviewing filtering and de-duplication logic.

Why does the database sometimes show more KAMs than a company's latest annual report?

The database retains historical KAMs across all years. A company may disclose fewer KAMs in its most recent filing, but earlier KAMs remain part of the historical record — so a full company extract may show more KAMs than the current audit report. To analyze KAMs year by year, filter by audit opinion date, fiscal year, or filing year, or use the Europe Audit Opinions dataset, which links each KAM to the specific opinion in which it was disclosed.

How do I join Europe KAMs to Europe Audit Opinions?

1. Join using KAM foreign key → Opinion primary key.
2. After merging, filter by fiscal year, form type, signature date, or other opinion-level attributes as needed.
3. For de-duplication, retain the most recent opinion per company-year based on signature or source date, or filter for annual reports before joining.

How can I avoid losing observations when merging Europe KAMs and Europe Audit Opinions?

1. Merge Opinions → KAMs before applying any year-level filters.
2. Filter on form type and de-duplicate on company-year using signature or source date.
3. Confirm English-language availability for the specific year being analyzed.
4. Use company name or ticker rather than ISIN when troubleshooting unmatched records.

Europe – Restatements

Do Europe Restatements require English-language filings?

Yes. Only restatements disclosed in English are included. Non-English restatement filings are not collected.

Europe – Transparency Reports

Are audit firm offices aggregated at the country level in the Europe Transparency Reports dataset?

No. Each office or member firm is represented as its own record, using identifiers such as AUDITOR_FKEY and AUDITOR_AFFILIATE_FKEY. Country-level totals are not pre-aggregated. Users can create country-level totals in WRDS by grouping on AUDITOR_FKEY (or affiliate keys) and TRANS_REPORT_AUDITOR_COUNTRY, allowing for flexible aggregation based on research needs.

Does Ideagen Audit Analytics provide an audit firm office identifier?

There is no single universal office ID. However, office-level information is available in the Auditors dataset (Feed 01, AUDITORS), with office locations provided in the auditor_location.txt supporting file, accessible via WRDS SAS Studio rather than the web query form. These fields are commonly used for office-level research, such as studies of audit quality at the office level.