Regulatory actions and programs

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Private Company Council have issued the final version of their Private Company Decision-Making Framework: A Guide for Evaluating Financial Accounting and Reporting for Private Companies

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department have brought civil and criminal charges against a Chicago accountant who used his wife’s trading account to short-sell shares in the health care information company where he was director of internal audit ahead of the public release of the company’s financial results, earning more than a quarter-million dollars in profits.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a joint motion with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu CPA Ltd. to dismiss without prejudice a subpoena enforcement action that the SEC had filed in 2011 after Deloitte’s Chinese affiliate failed to produce audit work papers for one of its clients in China, Longtop Financial Technologies, whose securities trade in the U.S.

KPMG has agreed to pay $8.2 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that the firm violated rules requiring auditors to remain independent from the public companies they’re auditing to ensure they maintain their objectivity and impartiality.

Chinese affiliates of the four largest accounting firms were barred for six months from leading audits for U.S.-listed companies after failing to comply with Securities and Exchange Commission orders for documents at the heart of a series of accounting fraud probes.

Payroll giant ADP has introduced additional tools to enable small businesses to comply with the complicated provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

Keeping an eye on all of the legislative and regulatory changes that occur throughout the course of the year is no easy task.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has been making progress on reducing its backlog of remediation submissions dating back to 2010 from auditing firms that have been addressing the problems found by PCAOB inspectors, according to a new report.

The International Valuation Standards Council has released a guide that aims to raise awareness of audit procedures among professional valuers in response to heightened scrutiny by regulators of valuations.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has delayed until July 1, 2014, the date on which the first set of municipal advisors will be required to register under final rules issued by the commission.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Diamond Foods and two of the San Francisco-based snack foods company’s former executives for their roles in an accounting scheme to falsify walnut costs in order to boost earnings and meet estimates by stock analysts, and the company has agreed to pay $5 million to settle the SEC’s charges.

Senators Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., have introduced bipartisan legislation to increase transparency around settlements reached by federal enforcement agencies, including disclosures of any tax deductions and tax credits.

The International Federation of Accountants is reiterating its call for global policymakers to focus on regulatory convergence, arguing that their failure to do so is stifling business confidence, economic stability and ambitions for a sustainable recovery.

A roundup of audit and assurance from the previous month

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board approved a 2014 budget of $258.4 million, and a 2013-2017 strategic plan that includes a greater focus on accounting firms' burgeoning consulting practices.

Miller & Bahnson reprise a column on the redefinition of comparability

The Financial Accounting Foundation has appointed investor and asset manager Ann Spruill to its Board of Trustees, effective Jan. 1, 2014.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has voted to propose rules aimed at increasing access to capital for smaller companies.

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued a staff report Friday to Congress on its disclosure rules for U.S. public companies, as part of the SEC’s efforts to modernize the disclosure requirements and reduce compliance costs for emerging growth companies.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has released the 2014 U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy.