Audit & Accounting

An overwhelming majority of corporate board directors oppose the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposal to require mandatory disclosure of communications between audit committees and auditors, according to a new survey.

Ernst & Young LLP took Bernie Madoff at his word when it signed off on audits of a fund that helped feed the biggest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history.

The number of accountants who belong to professional accounting organizations that are members of the International Federation of Accountants grew 16 percent from 2.4 million to 2.8 million between 2009 and 2013.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s 2007 standard on accounting for uncertainty in income taxes, FASB Interpretation No. 48, or FIN 48, has helped discourage companies from using tax reserves to manage their quarterly earnings reports, according to a new study.

Financial restatements can prompt similar companies to misstate their own earnings, according to a new study.

The Center for Audit Quality has released two new member alerts to help public company auditing firms address potential risks during the upcoming audit cycle.

Public companies paid an average of $1.5 million in audit fees last year, according to a new report, with a median audit fee of $402,812, representing a median increase of 3.4 percent over the audit fees they paid in 2013.

Thomson Reuters has added content to its Checkpoint Catalyst research system on the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s financial reporting requirements.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged two former top executives at OCZ Technology Group Inc. for accounting failures at the now-bankrupt seller of computer memory storage and power supply devices.

More than 20 percent of corporate board directors said their boards have been approached by activist investors during the past year, according to a new survey, but 46 percent of those polled have no plan in place for responding to activist investor challenges.