Audit & Accounting

ISO 22222, the Standard on Personal Financial Planning, has been approved as an international standard. All ISO members (Standardization Institutes in approximately 150 countries) around the world can now adopt ISO 22222 as a national standard.

A former KPMG partner involved in the audit of Xerox Corp. has accepted a one-year ban on auditing public companies.

Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP announced that litigator Robert Axelrod has joined as a director in the company's anti-money laundering group, part of Deloitte's national forensic & dispute services practice.

Speaking to an American Institute of CPAs conference, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox suggested that accounting rules need to be simplified in order to ensure that financial irregularities aren't hidden.

Foundation Software, a national developer of construction accounting systems, will unveil a new CPA Audit/Review Module at the AICPA Construction Conference next week.

AMR Research estimates that companies will spend $6 billion on complying with Sarbanes-Oxley Act requirements in 2006, close to the $6.1 billion they will spend in 2005.

The U.S. Treasury and Internal Revenue Service have issued guidance relating to provisions of the Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005 that allow Hurricane Katrina victims to access employer-sponsored retirement plans and IRAs.

Former Congressman Bill Gradison has been named acting chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

Ameriprise Financial -- the entity spun off by former parent American Express -- and its broker-dealer arm agreed to pay $57.3 million to settle charges of illegal trading and brokerage misconduct.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board issued a report saying that while the initial implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley and, specifically, Section 404, has not been without its challenges, the board is confident the process will be easier in the future.