In a nod to opponents and critics who complained about the costs of internal controls audits, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board voted unanimously to circulate a proposal that would trim down the amount of testing necessary to evaluate internal controls over the financial reporting process.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve Board have jointly released rules to implement “broker” exceptions for banks.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board released an exposure draft on pensions that would bring current disclosure requirements for governments and governmental pension plans into line with those recently issued for other post-employment benefits.

Tax research and products provider RIA, a Thomson business, has upgraded its proprietary Checkpoint service, adding a research tool that can be used for tax and auditing simultaneously.The "bridge" comes in the form of RIA sister company PPC's e-Practice Aids, Microsoft Word and Excel versions of all of the editable practice aids in the related PPC Guide, including those from WG&L, and materials from the Securities and Exchange Commission.PPC's e-Practice Aids work with paperless engagement software or with Word and Excel."One thing we heard from our customers, tax people were saying 'There was a reason we work in taxes, because we didn't want to do auditing'" said Ron Burkett, RIA's director of product management, in response to Sarbanes-Oxley. "It helps them bridge over to something they may not be that familiar with."Checkpoint is featuring a series of other enhancements as well, including a customized home page capability, which allows users to customize their research platform by selecting from a list of predefined views including accounting and auditing; corporate finance; tax; and estate and retirement planning, and decide their significance. In addition, users can create their own home page by selecting the content panes based on content they subscribe to that best fits their research needs. For more information about Checkpoint, visit http://ria.thomson.com or call (800)-950-1216.

Noted professional and college football coach Lou Saban was at the helm of the Denver Broncos who, on opening day in 1971, were unexpectedly giving the then-powerhouse Miami Dolphins the fight of their lives.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has hired Stephen Cutler, the former chief of enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission, as its top legal officer.Cutler, 45, left the SEC last year after playing a central role in the agency's investigations into historic corporate fraud and trading abuses. Since leaving the SEC, Cutler has been working at Washington-based Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, where he is a partner and co-chairs the securities practice. Cutler will begin working at the bank in February as its executive vice president and general counsel.

The Securities and Exchange Commission stopped well short of proposing exemptions from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s internal control provisions that many small companies had loudly lobbied for at the panel’s Wednesday meeting.Under the guidance proposed by the SEC, executives would evaluate the design of only those financial controls that might carry the risk of having a material impact on financial statements.