Audit

The Financial Accounting Standards Board said that it would assemble an investor task force -- a group comprised of top-level asset managers who will help advise the standard-setter on accounting issues relevant to Wall Street.

Sparked by double-digit growth in every one of its geographic regions, as well as higher results from its assurance and advisory services practice, Big Four firm Ernst & Young posted a 16 percent rise in fiscal 2005 revenues, to $16.9 billion versus the year-ago figure.

William McDonough, chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, cautioned auditors not to expect lawmakers to cap liability claims until they have won back public confidence.

KPMG International has appointed company veteran Mike Wareing as global chief executive officer, effective Oct. 1.

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, a unit of the International Federation of Accountants, has approved a revised standard that the governing body says will enhance audit quality via stricter requirements for documentation.

The European Parliament approved the controversial Eighth Directive, a sweeping reform measure that mandates new oversight rules for auditors.

Wolters Kluwer Corporate & Financial Services will provide the Internal Revenue Service with online access to capital gain and loss information on publicly traded securities.

Without the release of all pertinent documents by San Diego's pension board, attorney's office and firefighters union , auditor KPMG says that its review of the city's 2003 year could drag on even longer.

The Norwegian branch of KPMG International will pay $53.6 million to eight banks in order to settle damages over one of the country's worst bankruptcies.

The board of trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation appointed telecomm executive Robert J. DeSantis as president and chief operating officer.

It was a deal years in the making, though industry observers say that it didn't have to be.In striking an agreement to escape a potentially fatal criminal indictment for its sale of legally questionable tax shelters from 1996 to 2002, KPMG will pay a $456 million fine to the federal government and essentially spend the next 16 months on probation. The firm has also agreed to close its tax business for high-net-worth individuals within six months.

While Big Four firm KPMG was busy writing a check for $456 million as a settlement with federal regulators for its part in pushing fraudulent tax shelters, the remaining three global audit firms were either breathing a sigh of relief or wondering if they'll soon receive a request for a chat with prosecutors.Because KPMG avoided a criminal indictment like the one that ultimately proved fatal to now-defunct Big Five firm Arthur Andersen, my guess is you won't see a lemming-like exodus of audit clients like that at Andersen circa 2002.

ZONES INC. DISMISSES PWC: Zones Inc., an Auburn, Wash.-based reseller of information technology products, dismissed Big Four firm PricewaterhouseCoopers as its independent accountant and hired Grant Thornton as its successor.In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Zones said that it had no accounting disagreements with its former auditor over the last two fiscal years.

Audit committees have never felt so stressed and stretched. Everybody, from stock exchanges to boards of directors to investors, expects more from them, and the penalties for failure have never been more serious.As a result, audit committees are meeting more often, setting more serious agendas tilted more toward inquiry, demanding more of internal auditors, and calling for committee members with better qualifications.

In our preceding five columns, we have expressed our concerns to our good friends at the Financial Accounting Standards Board about their May 2005 exposure draft on the hierarchy of accounting principles.We confess that we yawned when we first saw this document superficially. However, a closer, more careful look made us sit upright and kick into gear. We don't think they meant anything sinister, but we found great hubris in their words.

In a continuing struggle to keep up with the increasing complexity of financial assets and special purpose entities, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued three proposals to amend existing statements that have, in just a few years, become - to some extent - obsolete.The proposals are a response to constituents in various sectors who requested clarifications and simplifications of the technically complex Statement 140, Accounting for Transfers and Servicing of Financial Assets, which was seen as becoming harder to interpret and implement as new kinds of financial assets come into existence, especially in the areas of securitizations and special purpose entities.

RIA, a part of the Thomson Corp. providing information and software to tax professionals, has computed the changes to next year's tax brackets, standard deductions, personal exemptions and other important tax breaks.

Insurance company Equitable Life dropped a $3.7 billion lawsuit against accounting firm Ernst & Young, ending what had been the country's largest claim ever brought against an auditor.

William J. McDonough, chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, announced that he will resign on Nov. 30 or when his successor is put in place, whichever occurs sooner.

It was a smooth first meeting for Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox, with the panel voting unanimously to extend the deadline for when small companies will have to have their internal controls documented under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley law.