Yesterday, Han Hoogervorst, the IASB chair, sent a letter to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), in which he expressed concern for the pie-in-the-sky numbers produced by EU banks on their Greek bonds classified as 'available for sale' (AFS).…
The following is more (see my earlier post) from PCAOB chair Jim Doty's June 2nd speech, describing an auditor's failure to correct an accounting misstatement that was "galling in its simplicity": "PCAOB inspectors found at one large firm that an…
This post more or less (actually somewhat more, than less) mirrors my answers to questions posed by Matt Kelly, editor of Compliance Week in a recent podcasted interview. The subject was audit firm term limits, or mandatory audit firm rotation;…
Lots of "rethinking" has been going on of late. There's a new SEC staff paper rethinking how to take IFRS adoption/convergence off life support; and the FASB and IASB are rethinking how much they can give away to special interests regarding…
I am trying hard to be optimistic, but there are more than a few indications that a Senate investigation of the accounting profession's role in the economy – which began last week with a two-hour hearing by the Subcommittee on…
The Senate Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment has announced that it will meet this Wednesday to conduct a hearing entitled "The Role of the Accounting Profession in Preventing Another Financial Crisis." "The witnesses on Panel I will be: Mr.…
After I left the SEC, Executive Enterprise Institute signed me up to produce and chair various SEC and financial reporting courses. Our collaboration is still going strong, and they have given me lots of exposure to guest speakers, many of…
As I wrote a few weeks ago, the most recent display of public handwringing is taking place in Europe over the distinct possibility that one of the Big Four could be forced out of the auditing business. According to a…
M. Michel BarnierEuropean Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Re: Green Paper, "Audit Policy: Lessons from the Crisis" Dear M. Barnier: My fellow blogger, Francine McKenna, has recently observed that the negative consequences of "Big Four" dominance of auditing services to…
I am, and have always been, a very reluctant user of pen and paper. Even on the rare occasion where I am sufficiently moved to take handwritten notes, they frequently end up to be little more than random doodling. Soon…