The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has published two sets of staff questions and answers to provide guidance about a registered auditing firm’s obligation to report certain events to the PCAOB in special reports, and the process through which a firm can succeed to a predecessor firm’s registration status.

The California Board of Accountancy is requiring CPAs licensed in California to take additional ethics education classes starting in the New Year, and all accounting firms in the state will be subject to peer review.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has established an academic fellowship program to recruit accounting researchers to spend a year at the PCAOB’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board said it has achieved its goal of substantial convergence with International Financial Reporting Standards dated Dec. 31, 2008, with a series of new or improved standards.

Financial Executives International has written a report listing the top challenges it sees for financial executives next year.

The case of Bernard Madoff’s former auditor, David Friehling, has cast the ethics of the accounting profession into a harsh light and forced his state CPA society to take action.

Earlier this year, I was asked to participate in a sort of town-hall-style forum to discuss a number of profession-centric issues. The session was slotted for one hour and, as is my custom, I hoped to make enough cogent points to not only fill the time slot, but also to keep the attendees interested (read: awake) and in their seats, and not just hanging around long enough to earn CPE - but we hardly had enough time to cover the critical events that surfaced in 2009 and will remain there to greet the profession in 2010.