Audit

The International Accounting Standards Board has issued a revised version of its standard for related-party transactions, simplifying the disclosure requirements and clarifying the definition of a related party.

Financial planning trade groups have written a letter to congressional leaders protesting an amendment that would extend the regulatory authority of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to cover investment advisers who are associated with broker-dealers under FINRA authority.

The International Federation of Accountants has released a new online chart showing the growing adoption of International Standards on Auditing.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has received mostly negative comments on a recent proposal to require engagement partners with final responsibility for an audit to sign the audit report, and it may end up abandoning the idea.

The Federal Trade Commission has once again extended the deadline for enforcing the so-called “Red Flags Rule” that requires financial institutions and creditors to develop identity theft prevention programs.

On Jan. 22, 1996, Accounting Today published the first version of The Spirit of Accounting, titled "Self-regulation: Oxymoronic or just plain moronic?"

With over $3 trillion in cash values, life insurance ranks second only to the mutual fund industry in magnitude. And though its use has expanded dramatically, particularly in sophisticated planning scenarios, it is rarely evaluated once put into place. Most people consider it a "static asset" that requires little maintenance. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Washington, D.C.-The Pentagon's Defense Contract Audit Agency - the federal watchdog responsible for providing critical accounting and auditing oversight of military contractors - is riddled with audit quality problems that include serious breaches of auditor independence, congressional investigators charged.

PCAOB SEES ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT IN AS5 AUDITS

Along with preventive elements such as codes of conduct, hotlines, and whistleblower mechanisms, continuous auditing and continuous monitoring can be a key component of an effective fraud risk management process. In addition, CA/CM shifts management's and internal audit's focus and review from a traditional retrospective/detective approach to a proactive/preventive stance.

SEC Chief Accountant Jim Kroeker said the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board should proceed with their efforts to converge U.S. and international accounting standards, even though the SEC commissioners have not yet formally approved the proposed roadmap to International Financial Reporting Standards.

IMGCAP(1)]The creation of a super agency to regulate banks is a beguilinglysimple idea. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the SenateBanking Committee, recently sent up a trial balloon, giving the ideanew life.

The International Accounting Standards Board and its U.S. counterpart, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, plan to meet on a monthly basis in order to achieve the goal of converging accounting standards by June 2011.

Seventy-one percent of U.S. CFOs and senior comptrollers surveyed by Grant Thornton believe that the Financial Accounting Standards Board should set U.S. accounting standards, instead of the International Accounting Standards Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission or Congress.

Forty percent of U.S. CFOs and senior comptrollers polled by Grant Thornton said they do not believe U.S. companies should be required to use International Financial Reporting Standards.

Despite growth in its Asia-Pacific region, as well as in its consulting unit, wobbly economic conditions both domestic and abroad resulted in Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu reporting a 4.9 percent decline in fiscal 2009 global revenues in U.S. dollars, to $26.1 billion, and just 1 percent growth in local currency terms.

The Private Company Financial Reporting Committee met to discuss the impact of recent changes in accounting standards on private companies, including some confusion in the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s new Codification updates.

Worried that corporate auditors are being duped by widespread related-party transaction frauds, officials at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board are considering new standards establishing stiffer and more specific requirements for accountants who encounter these arrangements.

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board has published a consultation paper seeking views on a new assurance standard it is developing for greenhouse gas emission reporting.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has established a Not-for-Profit Advisory Committee to offer input to the board on guidance, current and future technical projects, and longer-term issues affecting nonprofits.