Regulatory actions and programs

The three new members of the Securities and Exchange Commissioners who have just been approved by the Senate will have to hit the ground running to cope with a multitude of unfinished business.

The Senate has confirmed three new members of the Securities and Exchange Commission by unanimous consent, restoring the SEC to its full strength of five members.

The American Institute of CPAs plans to offer training in International Financial Reporting Standards and the Extensible Business Reporting Language.

The Center for Audit Quality has sent a comment letter to the Treasury Department's Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession recommending that it pay more attention to the litigation risk for audit firms.

Securities and Exchange Commission chief accountant Conrad Hewitt said SEC staff members planned to propose a date for mandating the use of International Financial Reporting Standards by public companies, but the date would not be confirmed for two years, giving accountants some extra leeway.

Sage Software introduced Sage Pro ERP 7.5, an updated version of its business management software for small and midsized businesses.

The House Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee held hearings on bills that would encourage employers to automatically enroll their employees in individual retirement account plans.

The International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation has released the IFRS Taxonomy 2008, a complete translation of International Financial Reporting Standards into Extensible Business Reporting Language.

A Russian appeals court has given PricewaterhouseCoopers' Russian firm the right to appeal a tax evasion case involving the firm's audits of the bankrupt Yukos oil company.

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to launch an ambitious project to re-examine how companies and other entities should make financial disclosures to take advantage of the latest technologies.

CCH has enhanced the Audit Public Library in its Accounting Research Manager database with a set of questions and answers about Financial Accounting Standard 157 for fair value measurements.

Japanese electronics giant NEC has settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over charges that it improperly booked revenue from its customer contracts and did not maintain accurate books and records, causing the company to miss filing financial statements two years in a row.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a one-year extension of the compliance date for smaller public companies to meet the Section 404(b) auditor attestation requirement of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

FiveStar3 has acquired the Alliance of Professional Associations, a national association management company for accounting firms.

Cohen & Co. has acquired Mercurio & Bridgford, expanding the Ohio-based firm's presence in Florida.

Small business owners are not optimistic about the current state of the economy, according to a new survey by the National Federation of Independent Business.

Financial regulators from around the world are setting up a monitoring group that will work with international accounting standards-setters.

Citigroup settled a longstanding civil complaint from the Securities and Exchange Commission over improper accounting during the economic crisis in Argentina in late 2001.

The SEC is coming under increasing pressure to decide on what date it will start requiring accounting firms to file financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued proposed regulations implementing amendments to the tax return preparer penalties.