Regulatory actions and programs

The American Institute of CPAs has released its much-anticipated Financial Reporting Framework for Small- and Medium-Sized Entities, which is aimed at providing an alternative reporting option for small businesses that aren’t required to use GAAP.

Bob Moritz, chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP since July 2009, sat down with Accounting Today on Friday to discuss some of the issues facing the accounting profession and how PwC has been adapting to changes in the economy and accounting, as well as his encounter with Michelle Obama when handing her the envelope for the Academy Awards.

The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, which provides guidance on internal control, enterprise risk management, and fraud deterrence, has issued a new article to help public companies make the transition to COSO’s recently updated internal control framework.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Bellevue, Wash.-based commercial truck manufacturer Paccar, and a subsidiary, with various accounting deficiencies that clouded their financial reporting to investors in the midst of the financial crisis.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has suspended trading in 61 microcap shell companies in an effort to prevent stock fraud, in the second largest trading suspension in the history of the SEC.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board identified deficiencies in half the audits it examined during its newly released inspection report on McGradrey LLP.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly preparing to turn its attention to accounting fraud cases after being diverted in recent years to Ponzi schemes and subprime mortgage fraud in the wake of the financial crisis.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board released a report Tuesday on its 2012 inspection of Deloitte & Touche LLP, indicating that it found problems in 12 of the 51 audits performed by the firm that it inspected and in one other audit in which the firm was involved.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said Friday that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding on enforcement cooperation with the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the Ministry of Finance, in a breakthrough on a long-running priority for the PCAOB that also stops short of inspections.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has made public previously confidential quality control criticisms from its 2009 inspection of Ernst & Young LLP after finding that the firm failed to address them to the board’s satisfaction.

Fraud fighters today face many of the same challenges as they did at the start of the last century, a leading investigator told accountants, academics and attorneys at the Fraud & Forensic Accounting Education Conference May 16 in Atlanta.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is looking for comment on proposed structural changes to the U.S. GAAP Taxonomy.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board have released for comment a revised exposure draft proposing significant changes to the standards for accounting for leases.

Compliance costs for Sarbanes-Oxley and external audit fees both increased last year, according to a new survey, but for most organizations the cost of SOX compliance remains at a manageable level.

The Center for Audit Quality has written to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to offer its perspectives on audit quality indicators in preparation for a meeting later this week of the PCAOB’s Standing Advisory Group.

A new academic study funded by the Center for Audit Quality scrutinizes the role of the external auditor in fraudulent financial reporting and found that the top areas cited by the Securities and Exchange Commission were failure to gather sufficient competent audit evidence, failure to exercise due professional care, and insufficient level of professional skepticism.

The City of Harrisburg, Pa., has settled securities fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the first-ever case in which the SEC has charged a municipality for misleading statements made outside of its securities disclosure documents.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has reproposed for public comment its related-parties auditing standard along with related amendments to other standards to address areas that have been contributing factors in financial reporting frauds.

Public Company Accounting Oversight Board member Jay Hanson spoke about some of the challenges faced by auditors and how the PCAOB is trying to address them.

Arrogance and ignorance remain major drives of unethical behavior in accounting and financial reporting