- Influencers 2007: Transparency Changes Everything
Business Finance has assembled its annual compendium of the regulators, watchdogs, corporate leaders and academics who are shaping the future of finance and accounting -- and this year, it's all about transparency. [more]
- Living in a Material World
As the compliance pendulum swings once again to sustain competitiveness in capital markets, companies have a new opportunity to eliminate unnecessary costs -- especially those that were already managing their finance and IT operations well. [more]
- Are Boards to Blame in Backdating Scandal?
Academics at Harvard and Cornell have released a new study of stock-option grants made to directors of US companies that claims to present evidence that outside directors' option grants "have been favorably timed to an extent that cannot be fully explained by sheer luck. [more]
- PCAOB Votes Unanimously for a New Auditing Standard
As expected, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) voted this week to propose a new auditing standard to replace the much-criticized Auditing Standard Number 2. [more]
- SEC Extends 404 Deadline For Small Businesses
The SEC offered further relief for smaller public companies and newly public companies on Friday by further postponing the date by which they must comply with the internal control reporting requirements mandated by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. [more]
- SEC Meeting Yields Progress on SOX 404, Deregistration
The SEC made a few decisions at its much anticipated open meeting on December 13 (one of the longest on record), most notably voting to propose interpretive guidance for management to improve Sarbanes-Oxley 404 implementation. [more]
- DOJ Sets New Policy on Indictment for Corporate Fraud
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty has announced that the Department of Justice is revising its corporate charging guidelines that federal prosecutors use in deciding whether and when to indict corporations for criminal fraud. [more]
- PCAOB To Propose Revised Auditing Standard Dec. 19
You have to love the language of government regulators -- they're the only ones who will call a meeting to "consider proposing" a revised standard. [more]
- Is Paulson Commission Report DOA?
Most of the recommendations made by the committee on US capital market regulation in its recent capital markets report will have the proverbial "snowball's chance" of being implemented due to the Democratic sweep of the House and Senate, experts told a New York Stock Exchange panel last week. [more]
- Taming Sarbanes-Oxley
According to Ventana Research, public companies are the winners in the latest set of reforms regarding the interpretation and enforcement of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. [more]
- Most Restatements Due to Basic Accounting Errors
SEC deputy chief accountant Scott Taub told attendees at the annual conference of Financial Executives International (FEI) that about 55 percent of recent company restatements were due to the misapplication of basic accounting rules or data integrity problems. [more]
- Walker to Congress: "We Cannot Afford to Continue Business As Usual"
Comptroller General David Walker, the head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), addressed a letter to Congress for the first time in his tenure on November 17. [more]
- PCAOB's Olson Defends SOX at FEI Conference
Mark W. Olson, chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), made comments last week at the Financial Executives International Shaping the Future of Financial Reporting Conference that clarified the PCAOB's stance on improving the implementation of Auditing Standard No. [more]
- Paulson Calls for "Regulatory Balance," Tougher Enforcement
In his first major speech addressing the growing concern that U.S. [more]
- Last Top Enron Exec Gets Five Years
Former Enron chief accounting officer Richard Causey was sentenced yesterday to five and a half years in prison, after pleading guilty in December to securities fraud, according to the Associated Press. [more]
- KPMG Releases 2006 Tax Department Survey Results
According to a just-released KPMG survey of senior tax executives at major U.S. [more]
- Information Governance: The Link to Better Enterprise Performance
Aligning corporate governance, risk management and compliance programs is the critical connection to enhancing business performance -- and getting the right IT assets in place to support these mutually dependant elements remains one of the greatest challenges for business leaders today. [more]
- SEC Wants to Ease SOX Burden for Small Companies
SEC chairman Christopher Cox said in an interview yesterday that he intends to pave the way for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to propose a new auditing standard for small businesses -- and for the SEC to approve it -- by spring. [more]
- SEC Chairman Cox Enters the Blogosphere
In what is apparently the first "official communication" posted to a blog by an SEC chairman, Christopher Cox posted a letter Friday on the blog of Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz. [more]
- Managing Relationships with External Audit
Although most CFOs play a pivotal role in assisting their audit committee with the selection and evaluation of auditors, the degree of their involvement in those decisions varies considerably. [more]
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