Audit & Accounting

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.

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board has released a new assurance standard on controls at service organizations such as international outsourcers.

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

The Senate voted to extend funding for Small Business Administration lending programs in the Recovery Act through February 2010.

The Center for Audit Quality has issued a request for proposals to fund independent academic research on projects of interest to the auditing profession.

A group of 13 senators has written to the Appropriations Committee requesting funds to extend Small Business Administration Recovery Act lending programs.

Ernst & Young has agreed to pay $8.5 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission after the firm and six of its former and current partners were charged with playing a role in accounting fraud at Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp.

The American Institute of CPAs and the Financial Accounting Foundation, which oversees the Financial Accounting Standards Board, are setting up a “blue-ribbon panel” to discuss how U.S. accounting standards can best meet the needs of users of private company financial statements.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has decided to re-propose seven auditing standards and amendments that would change the requirements for assessing audit risks.