Regulatory actions and programs

Public Company Accounting Oversight Board member Lewis Ferguson has been elected chair of the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators.

The announcement of civil and criminal insider trading charges earlier this month against Scott London, a former senior audit partner at KPMG, grabbed business headlines and took the public accounting profession by surprise.

A pair of influential senators have re-introduced legislation to make the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s disciplinary proceedings against auditing and accounting firms public.

Barack and Michelle Obama may need some better financial planning advice.

The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament voted Thursday to require public companies to change audit firms after up to 14 years, which could increase to 25 years if safeguards are put in place.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Capital One Financial Corporation and two of its senior executives with understating millions of dollars in losses on auto loans in the months leading up to the financial crisis.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has issued a formal policy statement in an effort to get more cooperation from public accounting firms in assisting with the PCAOB’s investigations of their audits.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu CPA Ltd. lost a bid to delay a lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking documents in an investigation of the auditor’s former client Longtop Financial Technologies Ltd.

A new study indicates that despite calls for greater auditor independence, investors prefer companies to be audited by the same firm that also provides it with tax services.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has voted unanimously to adopt rules requiring broker-dealers, mutual funds, investment advisers, and certain other entities regulated by the agency to adopt programs to detect red flags and prevent identity theft.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has sworn in Mary Jo White as the 31st chair, bringing with her experience as a federal prosecutor and securities lawyer.

The European Union has been considering an overhaul of the audit profession that could have a far-reaching impact on the Big Four.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Mary Jo White to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, putting the former U.S. attorney in charge of an agency that has failed to satisfy critics with its response to the financial crisis.

An audit by the Government Accountability Office of the Securities and Exchanges Commission’s Investor Protection Fund financial statements for fiscal years 2011 and 2012 found two areas of significant deficiency in the SEC’s internal controls.

The Securities and Exchange Commission reminded corporate filers Friday that the forthcoming release of its EDGAR financial statement database will support 2013 U.S. GAAP Taxonomy, but not the older 2011 taxonomy.

The Financial Accounting Foundation has named Iowa Auditor of State David A. Vaudt as the next chairman of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, succeeding Robert Attmore.

A report from the Securities and Exchange Commission clears companies to use social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter to announce key information, provided that investors have been alerted about which social media will be used.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is proposing improvements to financial reporting about discontinued operations of major business lines or major geographic areas of operations.

We are republishing some classic Spirit of Accounting columns while we're extra-busy with a new major project. We selected this one because (alas!) several of its points are just as valid today as they were when it was printed in October 2002

A roundup of audit & assurance news from the previous month