Audit

Research firm Audit Integrity issued a negative report to investors and auditing firms about Starbucks Corp., warning that the coffee retailer rates poorly on several risk factors, including equity risk, class-action litigation and financial restatements.

BDO Seidman memorialized the passing of former managing partner and FDIC Chairman L. William “Bill” Seidman, a member of the firm’s founding family.

NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer thinks accounting firms are charging small companies too much to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements and suggested the SEC may pressure the firms to reduce their fees.

A report by Fitch Ratings calls into question the cost-effectiveness of the improvements in financial statement presentation proposed by FASB and its international counterpart.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board wants to know more about how government accountants in developing countries are using cash-basis reporting.

New accounting standards effective at the beginning of 2009 will impact the accounting for mergers and acquisitions.

Grant Thornton has sent a letter to federal officials proposing that banking regulators adjust capitalization requirements to take into account the broader economic environment.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board has proposed new guidance to deal with the wave of government takeovers of private businesses.

Two thirds of the 500 largest public companies are prepared to begin using interactive data-tagging technology to file their financial statements, according to a new survey.

The Center for Audit Quality has released a new guidebook to explain to investors, managers and other interested parties the important role played by auditors of public companies.

PNC Equity Partners II LP has acquired Apex Analytix, a firm that provides recovery audit services to more than a third of the Fortune 100.

The Ohio Society of CPAs is teaming up with the U.S. Department of Labor to improve the quality of audits of employee benefit plans in the Buckeye State.

Among the tragedies inflicted on thousands of victims by Bernard Madoff was that perpetrated on a tiny accounting firm in New City, N.Y., a hamlet some 30 miles north of New York City.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a proposed standard on the fair value measurement of liabilities, seeking to clarify the thorny issue of fair value a bit further.

Accounting firm leaders, standard-setters and industry accountants called for more certainty in the roadmap to International Financial Reporting Standards.

The International Federation of Accountants has released the 2009 Handbook of International Standards on Auditing and Quality Control.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has published a staff audit practice alert explaining the potential auditing and review implications of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s recently revised standards on fair value accounting.

Less than half the CFOs polled in a recent survey by Grant Thornton were aware of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Accounting Standards Codification project, which is set to become the authoritative source of U.S. GAAP on July 1.

Barry Melancon, president and chief executive of the American Institute of CPAs, welcomed more than 350 AICPA Council members to the nation’s capital and told the state delegations to get ready to meet with legislators on pressing issues in the profession.

The International Accounting Standards Board said that the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s recently issued guidance on fair value measurement is consistent with its existing guidance, but it still sees a need to revise its own controversial standards to account for the impairment of illiquid assets.