Regulatory actions and programs

Accounting firm Bush, Ramlow & Shore is joining Firm Foundation, a recently established association for CPA firms that have approximately 10 to 30 full-time employees.

Japanese GAAP is moving closer to International Financial Reporting Standards under an agreement that will accelerate the process.

Trintech Group has updated its ReconNet reconciliation and account-balancing software with enhanced workflow features.

Large companies in the United States are getting better at managing potentially critical business risks, according to a new study.

Longstanding weaknesses in the financial systems of government agencies pose a "formidable challenge," according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office.

A majority of financial executives rank data quality and information integrity as the No. 1 priority, according to a new survey.

House lawmakers passed a $16 billion energy tax bill that does away with tax breaks for oil and gas companies and shifts the incentives to alternative energy, despite the threat of a veto from President Bush.

According to a recent press release, a nationwide telephone survey of 1,000 investors conducted for the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) indicated that 79 percent of those surveyed felt changes brought about by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act bolstered their confidence in financial information presented.

In its second merger of the year, Pittsburgh-based CPA firm Malin, Bergquist and Co. LLP has combined with a firm based in nearby Erie, Pa.: Diefenbach Delio Kearney & DeDionisio.

When the Institute of Internal Auditors reached out to the world in an effort to understand the nature of internal auditing, it hoped to get comments from 20 countries.It heard from 91.

CVB ENGAGES KPMGCVB Financial Corp., an Ontario, Calif.-based holding concern for Citizens Business Bank, has hired Big Four firm KPMG as its independent accountant, replacing McGladrey & Pullen.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board said it is looking for suggestions on whether it should pursue a project on accounting for insurance contracts, and whether it should team up with the International Accounting Standards Board, which has been working on a similar project.

Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell vetoed a bill that would have allowed Connecticut to set its own accounting standards."I have serious concerns about the potential fiscal impact this bill may have," said Rell. "The plain language of this bill would allow the comptroller to issue financial statements in whatever standards she prescribed."

It may seem belated, but the Governmental Accounting Standards Board has just recently gotten around to defining such fundamental accounting concepts as "asset" and "liability."It has also defined a pair of distinct financial statement elements that are new to accounting and whose definitions should clarify certain questions that have confounded governmental accountants and auditors for years.

Fewer taxpayers took advantage of the Internal Revenue Service's free electronic tax return filing service in 2007 than in previous years, according to a new audit report released by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.Moreover, the audit identified multiple calculation errors made by the commercial software of Free File Alliance firms.

The more we consider what the Financial Accounting Standards Board accomplished with SFAS 159, the more we're warming up to the sea change it represents. This standard, titled "The Fair Value Option for Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities," permits without requiring managers to account for financial assets and liabilities using their fair values, with unrealized gains and losses flowing through the income statement. Some have disparaged SFAS 159 for not mandating full fair-value reporting, while others have criticized its "optionality."We see it quite differently. For years we have endorsed the Quality Financial Reporting paradigm that calls managers to step out on their own and try to meet the needs of the capital markets for useful information. In effect, SFAS 159 provides a nudge in this direction by allowing, even encouraging, innovative managers to jump into QFR by applying fair value without waiting for everyone else to get into the pool. We've often said that the biggest rewards will go to those who start providing better financial statements, so we're gratified that FASB seems to have seen it our way.

Scandal-tainted Japanese accounting firm Misuzu Audit, formerly known as ChuoAoyama PricewaterhouseCoopers, has disbanded after 39 years, according to Kyodo News.

Ray Schmidt, chief information officer of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, is stepping down after five years to take a job in the private sector.

The American Institute of CPAs scored a victory this week in convincing House lawmakers to remove a provision in the Farm Bill Extension Act of 2007 that it feared could jeopardize the business of CPAs in farming communities.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has begun distributing $267 million to about 200,000 investors from the fund it set up as part of its settlement with Qwest Communications over allegations of accounting fraud.