Tucked inside the Trump Administration’s $4.8 Trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2021, released last week, is a plan that has caught the eye of Big Four auditors and internal auditors as well: The White House has proposed to merge the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board into the Securities and Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed amendments to securities regulations that, if passed, would change the requirements for disclosing financial information. It says the changes would modernize, simplify, and enhance some financial disclosure requirements in Regulation S-K. The proposed changes would also require some new disclosures. In a statement, Read More
A new report issued by an independent U.K. committee convened to review just about every facet of the audit function—from internal controls to internal audit to the independent assurance function offered by the Big Four and others—is urging a complete overhaul of the audit process. The Brydon Report, issued today, Read More
The U.S. Justice Department has announced the formation of a new unit to combat fraud in government procurement and in grant and program funding. The unit, labeled the Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF) will focus on deterring, detecting, investigating and prosecuting antitrust crimes, such as bid-rigging conspiracies and related fraudulent Read More
In a letter to Parliament, the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors called on the U.K. government for new legislation to reform how the audit industry is regulated in the wake of a series of major corporate collapses. The professional association, which represents internal auditors in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Read More
A new report finds that companies are making changes to financial disclosures, conducting audit “dry runs,” and even improving and adding new controls ahead of a new regulation that will require audit firms to disclose financial reporting issues that cause concern for auditors, known as “critical audit matters” or CAMs. Read More
A new academic study is calling into question a rule enacted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board that requires audit firms to disclose the name of the lead engagement partner who oversaw the audit. The regulation is known as Rule 3211 and took effect in January 2017. The idea Read More
The board of the Federal Deposit Corp. voted to approve changes to the Volcker Rule, which could ease some restrictions under the regulations and provide more clarity on what types of trades are and are not permitted. The Volcker Rule, which is part of the Dodd-Frank Act, generally prohibits banks Read More
Facebook will pay a record-breaking $5 billion penalty, and submit to major new privacy restrictions and a modified corporate structure, to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the company violated a 2012 FTC order by deceiving users about their ability to control the privacy of their personal information. The whopping Read More
Equifax has agreed to pay at least $575 million, and potentially up to $700 million, as part of a global settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and 50 U.S. states and territories, which alleged that the credit reporting company’s failure to take reasonable steps Read More
