Accounting & Auditing

Unusual increases in hourly rates for audit services contributed at least in part to increased audit costs that public companies experienced in their first year of compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley internal controls reporting. Quigley That’s according to James Quigley, CEO of Deloitte & Touche USA, who said in an exclusive interview with Compliance Week that audit […]

In the modern Sarbanes-Oxley environment, smaller companies that can’t stomach the onslaught of accounting and securities requirements should abandon their listings and turn to surging private equity sources, says James Quigley, CEO of Deloitte & Touche USA. “There’s a lot of concern for smaller public companies, but doing business in the capital markets is a […]

Experts differ on whether Cisco Systems is on the right track with its recent trial balloon at the Securities and Exchange Commission—another new method of valuing stock options that is intended to create an otherwise elusive market value. Cisco reportedly is meeting with SEC officials to determine whether it can offer a new type of […]

In the next three weeks, the Securities and Exchange Commission will release its long-anticipated study on off-balance-sheet accounting, and may in the next week issue promised guidance on internal control reporting, according to separate remarks by top SEC officials. Nicolaisen Speaking at a recent meeting of the American Academy of Actuaries, SEC Chief Accountant Donald […]

Chief executive officers will be required to certify corporate tax returns if a highway bill containing the certification provision as a rider survives the legislative process. The Senate Finance Committee has approved a highway funding bill that contains a rider requiring CEOs to certify under penalty of perjury that they have policies and procedures in […]

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a proposed statement to rank authority in generally accepted accounting principles, but in the process is contradicting its stated intention to give professionals more room for judgment. FASB is exposing for comment a draft of its hierarchy of GAAP to rank the order of authority of accounting principles […]

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 […]

The nation’s largest banking association last week asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to revise aspects of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002—claiming that the “troubling regulatory challenge” for small banks and other businesses is far too costly and results in unnecessary duplication of auditing work. The letter by the American Bankers Association to SEC Chairman […]

PricewaterhouseCoopers is under attack. For example, questions are starting to be raised about whether the world’s largest auditing firm should be held partly responsible for the accounting misdeeds at American International Group, its client of 30 years. So far, the auditor does not appear to be the target of an official investigation and no one […]