Audit & Accounting

The chief financial officer of a popular steakhouse chain has called it quits, citing the negative regulatory environment, including what he referred to as "lunacy over lease accounting."

BearingPoint, the consultancy formerly tied to accounting firm KPMG, disclosed that the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an informal probe into the company's accounting practices.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of the Chief Accountant has selected two professional accounting fellows for two-year terms beginning in June 2005.

Despite dire predictions by critics of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that the accounting reform law would freeze smaller CPA firms out of the audit business, just the opposite appears to be happening, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Chairman William J. McDonough told Congress.

Officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the European Union Commission have reached an agreement on a "roadmap" toward equivalence between international and U.S. accounting rules.

The Government Accountability Office's quality assurance system has received a clean audit opinion from an international peer review team.

The New York State Society of CPAs has launched "CPAs on Boards," a state-wide program that links CPAs with nonprofit organizations looking for financial experts to add to their boards of directors.

The American Institute of CPAs, the AICPA Foundation, the National Endowment for Financial Education and the American Red Cross have launched a new, broad-based disaster preparedness and planning guide for consumers.

Grant Thornton executives this week urged regulators, public company boards and executives, and auditors to move to protect capital markets and investors by taking steps to increase choice and competition for public companies and auditors.

Companies that limit Sarbanes-Oxley reviews to a small group of senior management have worse performance records compared with those that involve much of the organization in their review process, according to a report by research firm AberdeenGroup.