Audit & Accounting

Hiring expectations, personal finances and job satisfaction concerns, among a number of other factors, caused confidence among accounting and finance workers to dip in October, according to the Hudson Employment Index.

RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. announced chairman and chief executive James N. Stanard resigned in light of investigations into the company's earnings restatement.

As part of its program to improve the clarity of international standards, the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board of the International Federation of Accountants has issued exposure drafts of four proposed standards in a new drafting style.

Personal exemptions and standard deductions will rise, tax brackets will widen and individuals will be able to make larger tax-free gifts in 2006, thanks to inflation adjustments announced today by the Internal Revenue Service.

A federal judge gave preliminary approval to a $225 million settlement between KPMG and law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP.

Rep. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, and chair of the House Financial Services Committee, whose surname represents half of the most famous hyphenate in the history of accounting reform, will retire from the House after 25 years in Congress.

In a joint statement, the American Institute of CPAs, the Securities Industry Association and the Bond Market Association said they would start anew discussions on auditor due diligence.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will begin random annual visits to investment advisors, instead of its usual five-year visits, a ccording to published reports.

KPMG LLP announced that it has admitted 166 new partners for 2005, the largest class of audit, tax and advisory partners in the firm's history.

In mid-October, accounting firm Grant Thornton LLP was contacted by both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board about its role as auditor of Refco Inc.