PCAOB Mulls Attestation Standards for Broker-Dealer Audits

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has scheduled an open meeting for Thursday to consider adopting attestation standards for auditors of brokers and dealers.

The meeting scheduled for 9:30 am Thursday will also cover an auditing standard for supplemental information on broker-dealer audits along with related amendments to other PCAOB standards.

The PCAOB has begun stepping up its efforts in recent years to inspect auditors of broker-dealers after the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 included provisions to require inspections of certain types of broker-dealers, in response to the absence of any real audits of convicted Ponzi scheme fraudster Bernard Madoff by his longtime accountants. In its early inspections of auditors of broker-dealers, the PCAOB has uncovered a number of troubling practices that indicate the problem was not confined to Madoff’s auditors (see PCAOB Finds Continuing Problems with Most Broker-Dealer Audits).

At the open meeting, the PCAOB plans to consider two attestation standards related to the auditor’s examination of compliance reports and review of exemption reports of broker-dealers.

In addition, the PCAOB will consider a new standard on auditing supplemental information that accompanies financial statements audited in accordance with PCAOB standards.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 amended the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to, among other things, authorize the PCAOB to oversee the audits of broker-dealers registered with the SEC. On July 30, 2013, the SEC amended Rule 17a-5 to require, in part, that audits of broker-dealers' financial statements and supplemental information, and examinations of broker-dealers' compliance reports, and reviews of broker-dealers’ exemption reports be conducted by firms registered with the PCAOB and in accordance with PCAOB standards.

The PCAOB initially proposed the attestation standards and auditing standard on July 12, 2011.

The meeting is open to the public and will take place in the PCAOB’s meeting room at 1666 K St. NW, Washington, DC. A webcast will be made available the day of the meeting through a link on the PCAOB Web site. The meeting also will be available by podcast later in the day.

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