Regulatory actions and programs

Former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt blamed recent SEC actions for contributing to the credit crisis and urged legislators to expand fair value accounting.

A New Jersey jury has awarded a company nearly $32 million after it sued KPMG for negligence; with interest, the verdict amounts to over $41 million.

The American Bankers Association has written to the Securities and Exchange Commission demanding that it override the Financial Accounting Standards Board's guidance on fair value accounting.

The former CEO and CFO of drug store chain Duane Reade were indicted on fraud charges for allegedly inflating the company's income.

The Internal Revenue Service has recently added a page to its Web site for the self-employed. I sure could’ve used that when I was a freelance writer, even though there was no Internet then.

The Tax Court has amended its rules of rules of practice and procedure for whistleblower actions, making it easier for informants to keep their identities confidential.

The Securities and Exchange Commission named Dr. Amy Edwards to the post of Assistant Chief Economist for Markets and Intermediaries in the agency's Office of Economic Analysis.

The Trustees of the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation gave the International Accounting Standards Board the go-ahead to suspend due process rules in order to accelerate their response to the credit crisis.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued two separate but related exposure drafts proposing standards on going concerns and subsequent events.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has provided new flexibility to allow banks and other financial institutions to re-price their assets during the credit crisis by amending its standard on fair value measurements.

An 83 percent majority of CFOs favor separating the roles of CEO and chairman, according to a survey by Grant Thornton.

To assist companies in dealing with the plunging markets and subsequent fallout, Protiviti, a provider of internal audit and risk advisory services, has assembled a Financial Crisis Team.

After a two-year battle, the Internal Revenue Service has released thousands of pages of agency statistics to the Syracuse University-based Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., has proposed a $150 billion Emergency Stabilization Fund to help small businesses, universities, students and municipalities cope with the credit crisis, with the money coming from the $700 billion financial bailout package.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said it has started work on a study of mark-to-market accounting authorized by the financial rescue bill that was approved last week.

Participants in a Securities and Exchange Commission roundtable discussed how the credit crisis would affect the SEC's plans for an improved financial disclosure system.

The Internal Revenue Service issued a notice late last week that allows U.S. corporations to get more tax-free loans from their foreign subsidiaries.

The Treasury Department's Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession has released its final report outlining recommendations on how to improve the sustainability of the audit profession, including a dissenting statement from one of its members.

The Internal Revenue Service issued a notice aimed at calming fears that it would act against insurance-dedicated money market funds that take advantage of a new temporary guarantee program.

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board has released an audit practice alert to help auditors deal with the controversial issue of fair value accounting estimates.