Audit & Accounting

UBS AND E&Y SETTLE HEALTHSOUTH LAWSUIT

New York - A class-action lawsuit by former shareholders of Lehman Brothers has been amended to add the defunct investment bank's auditor, Big Four firm Ernst & Young, as a defendant.

We begin by repeating this Feb. 24, 2010, quote from the American Institute of CPAs' Barry Melancon: "Our increasingly global economy makes it clear that the U.S. should move toward a single set of high-quality, globally accepted accounting standards for public companies."

More than a decade ago, my wife and I lugged ourthen-small offspring for a number of weekends one summer on car-shoppingexcursions.

The Senate voted last week to approve a historic financial regulatory reform bill that would make sweeping changes in how the financial system is regulated.

The Center for Audit Quality and the Council of Institutional Investors are protesting two proposed amendments to the financial regulatory reform bill that would exempt smaller public companies from compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404(b) audits of their internal controls.

IMGCAP(1)]Last month, the AICPA issued a set of standards that CPAs who do assurance engagements at service companies should examine carefully.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board continues to encounter resistance in inspecting foreign accounting firms that audit the books of non-U.S. companies whose stock trades on U.S. exchanges.

Trust in financial institutions has been severely eroded by the financial crisis, but a new survey has found that the majority of Americans find statements by spokespeople from accounting firms believable.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Schapiro tried to explode some of the “myths” about the agency’s drawn-out convergence of U.S. GAAP with International Financial Reporting Standards, insisting the SEC is committed to global accounting standards and not simply protecting America’s “parochial” interests.