Audit

Audit committees are confronting another challenging year, with continued economic uncertainty, globalization, digitization, and increased government regulation and enforcement reshaping the business and risk environment, according to a report from KPMG.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged two auditors at KPMG for playing a role in a failed audit of a Nebraska bank that hid millions of dollars in loan losses from investors during the financial crisis and eventually filed for bankruptcy.

The need to cut the federal budget deficit should be the government’s top economic priority, according to a survey of CPAs.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has approved a new standard intended to improve accounting and financial reporting for state and local governments’ combinations and disposals of government operations.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a proposed clarification to a fair value disclosure exemption affecting private companies and nonpublic not-for-profit organizations.

Office relocation, fiscal cliff tax briefing and Hurricane Sandy relief efforts…

The American Institute of CPAs has issued amendments to its auditing standards for when to reference the audit of a component auditor in the auditor’s report on the group financial statements.

Regional Leader BeachFleischman PC and Phoenix-based CPA firm Taylor, Duffy & Associates PC have merged, effective January 1.

Highlights of the previous month in audit and attest

Financial Accounting Standards Board chairman Leslie Seidman and International Accounting Standards Board chairman Hans Hoogervorst appeared side by side at an American Institute of CPAs conference in early December to discuss what went awry in U.S. support for International Financial Reporting Standards.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board released a report in early December in which it identified widespread problems at eight major firms with their audits of internal control over financial reporting.

The Private Company Council held its inaugural meeting in early December to discuss how accounting standards should be adjusted for privately held companies.

Ten years on, SOX doesn't appear to be working

Accounting Today is in the midst of compiling its annual lists of the Top 100 Firms and Regional Leaders, and is looking for more top-notch accounting firms to consider.

The Financial Accounting Foundation, which oversees the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, is coming out in support of a proposal to create a new Accounting Standards Advisory Forum of international standard setters, but is balking at a requirement that participants need to make a commitment to International Financial Reporting Standards.

Fiscal Cliff Estimator, community service, new studies, Web sites and more

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has released its latest inspection reports on Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young and Grant Thornton, and identified deficiencies with several of the audits it inspected.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has released the 2013 U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy.

Grant Thornton reported global revenue growth of 10.4 percent in U.S. dollars, to a record $4.2 billion, for the year ended Sept. 20, 2012. Growth in local currency terms was even higher, at 13.2 percent.

The American Institute of CPAs has developed an online Audit Risk Assessment Tool to help focus in on the potential risk of material misstatements in a financial statement audit due to fraud or error.