Audit & Accounting

Despite a challenging business environment, chief financial officers' optimism about the economy and their own companies' financial prospects remains high, according to a recent poll.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a proposal that would allow filers to submit financial data in eXtensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL.

The International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation Trustees have tapped Australian Stock Exchange chief Richard G Humphry to serve as a trustee from the Asia-Pacific region.

KPMG LLP has admitted 160 new partners for 2004, up nearly 40 percent over the 115 new partners the firm admitted last year.

Class-action specialist Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP has filed suit against beleaguered mortgage financing concern Fannie Mae, charging the company with violations of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 and making false and misleading statements that ultimately led to a "scandal of tremendous proportion."

The American Institute of CPAs has launched the third of its planned Audit Quality Centers.

In a move aimed at reducing the paperwork burden for small businesses, the Internal Revenue Service said it would boost the number of small businesses eligible to file a simplified expense form.

The regulator charged with overseeing mortgage concern Fannie Mae appears to be considering a shake-up of its top management to clean up the beleaguered firm.

Fund research provider Morningstar Inc. said it is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission related to incorrect total return data that Morningstar published earlier this year for a single mutual fund.

On the heels of a pair of settlements to resolve the company's $2.2 billion accounting scandal, two former top executives of software maker Computer Associates International Inc. pleaded not guilty to criminal charges.