To further enhance transparency in financial reporting, should investors have direct access to a company’s auditors? How about the engagement letter and other documents related to the audit/client relationship? Should the audit partner be required to take pen in hand and sign the audit? Is there adequate competition among audit firms, or should regulators have a hand in creating new options for public companies?
These are live topics of debate in European accounting circles, but few in U.S. capital markets have heard the discussion or see the U.S. as ready to join the conversation.
