Audit

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has established an academic fellowship program to recruit accounting researchers to spend a year at the PCAOB’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board said it has achieved its goal of substantial convergence with International Financial Reporting Standards dated Dec. 31, 2008, with a series of new or improved standards.

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board has released a new assurance standard on controls at service organizations such as international outsourcers.

The Senate voted to extend funding for Small Business Administration lending programs in the Recovery Act through February 2010.

The Center for Audit Quality has issued a request for proposals to fund independent academic research on projects of interest to the auditing profession.

A group of 13 senators has written to the Appropriations Committee requesting funds to extend Small Business Administration Recovery Act lending programs.

Ernst & Young has agreed to pay $8.5 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission after the firm and six of its former and current partners were charged with playing a role in accounting fraud at Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has decided to re-propose seven auditing standards and amendments that would change the requirements for assessing audit risks.

Nearly three-quarters of finance professionals believe their company could be more efficient in the implementation of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act dealing with the outside audit of internal controls, according to a new survey.

The case of Bernard Madoff’s former auditor, David Friehling, has cast the ethics of the accounting profession into a harsh light and forced his state CPA society to take action.

Japan’s Financial Services Authority has decided to permit voluntary domestic use of International Financial Reporting Standards, putting added pressure on the U.S. to follow suit.

The employment outlook in accounting and finance is expected to stabilize in the first quarter, according to a new survey of CFOs, although the hiring environment remains challenging for now.

The American Institute of CPAs joined with over a dozen other accounting organizations around the world to call for a single standard for climate change reporting.

James Leisenring, a member of the International Accounting Standards Board, told attendees at an accounting conference in New York to disregard the board’s recently issued standard for recognizing and measuring financial instruments, acknowledging that political pressures had forced the board to publish the standard.

The CFA Institute expressed its support for Financial Accounting Standards Board Chairman Robert Herz’s statements on the need to “decouple” accounting standard-setting from bank regulation.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is facing an uncertain future after several justices on the high court appeared to side with the accounting firm and conservative group that hope to prove the board is unconstitutional.

FASB Chairman Robert Herz and AICPA Accounting Standards Executive Committee Chairman Jay Hanson separately acknowledged that many assets and financial instruments do not need to be measured at fair value on the balance sheet.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chief Accountant James L. Kroeker told leaders of the accounting profession that independent auditors will be expected to consider the interests of the “investing public” — not just their audit clients — when performing their duties.

Audit committee members are more likely to support the auditor over management in an accounting disagreement when the compensation of members of the board audit committee includes long-term stock options, according to a new study.

The Trustees of the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation, which oversees the International Accounting Standards Board, said they are seeking nominations to identify a successor to IASB Chairman Sir David Tweedie.