Tammy Whitehouse

There’s some new evidence that the stigma of restating financial results may be easing in the post-Sarbanes-Oxley world. Economists at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board say the average net loss in market capitalization for companies announcing plans to restate has declined $207 million per restatement announcement since Sarbanes-Oxley took effect, compared with similar events […]

Smaller audit firms recently received a heads-up from audit regulators on where they should focus their attention in the next audit cycle—which also gives chief financial officers hints on where they should be focusing attention themselves. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board issued a report summarizing its findings from three years of inspections at nearly […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission has given its blessing to Zions Bancorp’s idea of using a stock option-based security to determine the expense of stock option grants. SEC Chief Accountant Conrad Hewitt sent a letter to Zions saying he had no objection to Zions’ view that its Employee Stock Option Appreciation Rights Security is adequately […]

Accounting rulemakers may have decided to go forward with their controversial vision for measuring fair value, but be prepared for an about-face at any time. By the narrowest of margins, the Financial Accounting Standards Board voted last week to proceed with the Nov. 15 effective date for Financial Accounting Standard No. 157, Fair Value Measurements. […]

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has decided to take a risk-based approach of its own to inspecting the work of audit firms, changing its rules to give itself more flexibility deciding when and whom to inspect. The amendments apply to PCAOB Rule 4003, which specifies how frequently the Board should conduct required Sarbanes-Oxley inspections […]

The Financial Accounting Standards Board may find itself forced this week to impose an 11th hour delay to its new standard for measuring fair value, boxed into a corner by deep disagreement on both sides of the Atlantic over how to define fair value. FASB adopted Financial Accounting Standard No. 157, Fair Value Measurements, one […]

New accounting rules for mergers will force companies to show more upfront gains in acquisitions where the ultimate purchase price adds up to less than the appraised value of net assets, according to a recent analysis by the Georgia Tech Financial Analysis Lab. Such “negative goodwill” has been an accounting conundrum for some time, says […]

A George Washington University law professor has proposed a market-based method for easing jitters over auditor liability: issue bonds tied to the risk of an audit failure. In a 51-page paper titled “Securitizing Audit Failure Risk: An Alternative to Caps on Damages,” professor Lawrence Cunningham says audit firms should issue bonds, seeking investors willing to […]