Regulatory actions and programs

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted this week to open to public comment proposed new rules related to the governance, transparency, oversight and ownership of the stock exchanges.

Good judgment and thorough disclosure -- from both auditors and issuers -- are the keys to restoring investor confidence in the capital markets as well as the accounting profession, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Chairman William McDonough told a gathering of financial executives here.

The National Association of Securities Dealers charged H&R Block Financial Advisors Inc., the investment arm of the tax prep giant, with fraud in the sale of $16 million worth of Enron Corp. bonds after the energy firm's finances and bond ratings had begun to collapse.

Auto loan provider United PanAm Financial Corp. said that it will restate three years of financial statements due to a programming error in its accounting system that led it to fail to properly reverse $3.1 million in accrued interest on certain charged-off accounts since 1998.

Electronic Data Systems postponed for the second time the release of its third quarter earnings pending an evaluation by the company and its auditor of an asset impairment related to its Navy Marine Corps Intranet account.

Two former Computer Associates executives settled Securities and Exchange Commission charges that they participated in a widespread practice that resulted in the software maker's improper recognition of revenue.

Citing objections from banking regulators including the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission said it would delay a plan to oversee brokerage services offered by banks until March 31, 2005.

The American Institute of CPAs has adopted ethics rules that place new requirements on members who outsource clients' work to third-party providers and broaden the definition of those providers.

Media and entertainment giant Time Warner Inc. said that it had established $500 million in legal reserves related to pending government investigations, and that it intends to restate its accounting for its interests in AOL Europe prior to 2002.

In one of the first cases of document destruction brought under Sarbanes-Oxley, a former partner in Ernst & Young's San Francisco office pled guilty to falsifying records in a federal investigation, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California said.

Two years after the introduction of Sarbanes-Oxley, corporate reforms are still impacting corporate directors, according to a study by Corporate Board Member magazine and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Despite Internal Revenue Service assertions that it had halted the decline in the government's efforts to police corporate tax non-compliance, the pace of corporate audits is running well below record-low levels registered in 2003, according to an analysis of IRS data.

There's good news for accounting and finance professionals -- starting salaries are expected to increase an average of 2.4 percent next year. But the news is far better for internal auditors and professionals focused on Sarbanes-Oxley and other corporate governance-related initiatives -- they're poised to see huge boosts in base compensation, according to staffing giant Robert Half International Inc.

Following its earlier decision to delay the implementation of a proposed standard to mandate stock option expensing, members of the Financial Accounting Standards Board decided that the standard will apply to private companies and small business issuers for fiscal years beginning after Dec. 15, 2005, as originally planned.

Grant Thornton LLP and its international parent firm are striking back against a $10 billion lawsuit filed against them by bankrupt dairy giant Parmalat.

The most significant challenge facing small firms in the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's inspection process is the difference between the board's approach versus that taken during the peer reviews of the past, the deputy director of inspections in the board's New York office told a group of CPAs gathered here.

Grant Thornton LLP and its international parent firm are striking back against a $10 billion lawsuit filed against them by bankrupt dairy giant Parmalat.

The European Commission has proposed changes to European Union accounting rules that it says will help shore up confidence in financial reporting.

Members of the Professional Ethics Executive Committee of the American Institute of CPAs acknowledged a series of practitioner's concerns with regard to PEEC's revised interpretation of rules governing members who offer non-attest services to attest clients.

Thomas C. Newkirk, associate director in the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement, will depart the commission in November after 19 years of service to become a partner in the Washington office of the law firm of Jenner & Block LLP.