Audit

The Financial Accounting Standards Board will add a new project to its agenda and reconsider its accounting guidance for pensions and other retirement benefits.

The upcoming International Standards Organization's 22222 standard is now in a final ballot, with the objective of achieving and promoting a globally accepted benchmark for individuals who provide the professional service of personal financial planning.

Big Four firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and technology and electronics concern Hitachi America have partnered on a program integrating Hitachi's proprietary XBRL product with PwC's audit management software.

Bond insurer MBIA Inc. will restate its earnings for the past seven years, as well as set aside $75 million in anticipation of settling with regulators over an accounting probe into defaulted bonds.

The U.K. government proposed legislation last week that could limit the liability accounting firms face when auditing publicly traded companies.

PricewaterhouseCoopers will pay about $28 million to shareholders of Telxon Corp., finally putting an end to legislation concerning the high-tech manufacturer.

Securities and Exchange Commission deputy chief accountant Andrew D. Bailey Jr. will leave the commission in December.

In a former life covering sports, I was once assigned to a late-season game between the New York Mets and the Chicago Cubs. It seemed back then that most every season for the Cubs was eerily similar to Groundhog Day, where a cynical weatherman played by Bill Murray is forced to relive the worst day of his life over and over.Entering that season, the Cubbies once again were optimistic - as were the weary faithful at Wrigley Field - that they could seriously contend for a pennant, as they had miraculously done just two years before. But the team finished with roughly 70 wins versus 90 losses, which was good enough to earn them fifth place in the standings.

The Internal Revenue Service released its enforcement results for fiscal year 2005.

As part of a handful of executive appointments, Jack T. Taylor has been named to the newly created position of executive vice chair of operations for KPMG LLP.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is closing in on a proposed new audit standard governing engagement quality reviews by accounting firms.That standard, which appears on track to be advanced during 2006, is part of an ambitious agenda of audit standard-setting activities for the coming year that was outlined by PCAOB staffers during a recent meeting of the board's Standing Advisory Group.

According to a recent report, NASA has failed to fix the majority of the 45 accounting and financial management problems cited by the Government Accountability Office in previous audits.

Big Four firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and its global network reported combined member firm revenues of $20.3 billion for the year ended June 30, 2005, a nearly 17 percent rise in U.S. dollars versus the previous year.

Hiring expectations, personal finances and job satisfaction concerns, among a number of other factors, caused confidence among accounting and finance workers to dip in October, according to the Hudson Employment Index.

Personal exemptions and standard deductions will rise, tax brackets will widen and individuals will be able to make larger tax-free gifts in 2006, thanks to inflation adjustments announced today by the Internal Revenue Service.

A federal judge gave preliminary approval to a $225 million settlement between KPMG and law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP.

Rep. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, and chair of the House Financial Services Committee, whose surname represents half of the most famous hyphenate in the history of accounting reform, will retire from the House after 25 years in Congress.

In a joint statement, the American Institute of CPAs, the Securities Industry Association and the Bond Market Association said they would start anew discussions on auditor due diligence.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will begin random annual visits to investment advisors, instead of its usual five-year visits, a ccording to published reports.

KPMG LLP announced that it has admitted 166 new partners for 2005, the largest class of audit, tax and advisory partners in the firm's history.