The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve Board have jointly released rules to implement “broker” exceptions for banks.

Nearly two weeks after the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s audit inspection team cited Deloitte & Touche for audit deficiencies, the oversight body’s report on PricewaterhouseCoopers criticized a number of 2005 audits performed by that Big Four firm.

Though revenues from the U.S. Government rose 12 percent over fiscal 2006, to $2.4 trillion, the future costs for social insurance programs such as Medicare and Social Security will be trillions more than initially projected.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board released an exposure draft on pensions that would bring current disclosure requirements for governments and governmental pension plans into line with those recently issued for other post-employment benefits.

Tax research and products provider RIA, a Thomson business, has upgraded its proprietary Checkpoint service, adding a research tool that can be used for tax and auditing simultaneously.The "bridge" comes in the form of RIA sister company PPC's e-Practice Aids, Microsoft Word and Excel versions of all of the editable practice aids in the related PPC Guide, including those from WG&L, and materials from the Securities and Exchange Commission.PPC's e-Practice Aids work with paperless engagement software or with Word and Excel."One thing we heard from our customers, tax people were saying 'There was a reason we work in taxes, because we didn't want to do auditing'" said Ron Burkett, RIA's director of product management, in response to Sarbanes-Oxley. "It helps them bridge over to something they may not be that familiar with."Checkpoint is featuring a series of other enhancements as well, including a customized home page capability, which allows users to customize their research platform by selecting from a list of predefined views including accounting and auditing; corporate finance; tax; and estate and retirement planning, and decide their significance. In addition, users can create their own home page by selecting the content panes based on content they subscribe to that best fits their research needs. For more information about Checkpoint, visit http://ria.thomson.com or call (800)-950-1216.

Noted professional and college football coach Lou Saban was at the helm of the Denver Broncos who, on opening day in 1971, were unexpectedly giving the then-powerhouse Miami Dolphins the fight of their lives.

When I was a kid, sometime around the Battle of Gettysburg, I had run up a pretty good comic book collection. I was addicted to comic books and had first editions, first issues of Batman, Superman, Joe Palooka, Little Lulu, and The Katzenjammer Kids, to name a few. The dimes I got from my grandparents went a long way then.But, alas, you know exactly what happened to them, don’t you? I left for four years of college, plus a couple of years in the service (it was mandatory at that time), and by the time I came home (along with many of my neighborhood friends), those cartons in the garage? Well, where they are, I’m unsure but it could have been income in retirement.

Resolutions relating to improving personal finances in the New Year will likely hold steady year-over-year, according to an unscientific survey.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has hired Stephen Cutler, the former chief of enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission, as its top legal officer.Cutler, 45, left the SEC last year after playing a central role in the agency's investigations into historic corporate fraud and trading abuses. Since leaving the SEC, Cutler has been working at Washington-based Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, where he is a partner and co-chairs the securities practice. Cutler will begin working at the bank in February as its executive vice president and general counsel.

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty has authored a memo revising the Department of Justice’s guidelines for federal prosecutors looking to press charges against white-collar criminals.

After a federal judge denied a request from Jeffrey Skilling to remain free on bond pending an appeal, the former Enron chief executive reported to a low-security federal prison in Minnesota Wednesday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission stopped well short of proposing exemptions from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s internal control provisions that many small companies had loudly lobbied for at the panel’s Wednesday meeting.Under the guidance proposed by the SEC, executives would evaluate the design of only those financial controls that might carry the risk of having a material impact on financial statements.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans has given a reprieve to Enron’s former chief executive, who was due to report to prison yesterday and begin serving a 24-year sentence.The court’s stay of the order will keep Jeffrey Skilling, 53, out of the low-security Federal Correctional Institution in Waseca, Minn., for a while longer. He was convicted in May on securities fraud and conspiracy charges, related to his role in the accounting fraud that led to the company’s historic collapse.

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to address the Sarbanes-Oxley compliance burden by scaling-back testing and documentation requirements for smaller public companies.

A senior accountant at PNC Financial Services Group Inc. and a former Ernst and Young partner have agreed to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that they played a role in PNC filing reports that inflated the company’s 2001 earnings.

A federal banking regulator has fined Grant Thornton LLP $300,000 for “reckless conduct” in performing a 1998 audit of the failed First National Bank of Keystone.

A proposal from the Financial Accounting Standards Board would require companies to provide more information about the effects of derivative and hedging activities on financial statements.

PWC SURVEY FINDS BOARD MEMBERS CONCERNED ABOUT FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS: Nearly 75 percent of board members at U.S. financial services firms said that the increasing use of sophisticated financial instruments such as derivatives will be the next big area of regulatory focus for the financial industry, according to a survey conducted by Big Four firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.Meanwhile, a near-unanimous 97 percent of board members polled said that the level of due diligence and understanding of sophisticated financial instruments being used in the market should be a major concern for board members.

LBMC Investment Advisors LLC said that it recently surpassed the $200 million mark of assets under advisement. Formed in 1998 as an affiliate of Lattimore Black Morgan & Cain PC - Tennessee's largest regional accounting and business consulting firm - LBMC Investment Advisors has offices in Brentwood and Knoxville, Tenn.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is now four years old, and companies, accountants and agencies are still arguing about who should have to comply and how those who are subject to the act can meet the compliance regulations.Smaller public companies are howling at what they see as onerous costs in implementing SOX measures and software. The good news is that there is finally lots of software available to help companies of all sizes in complying with SOX.