Corporate & Securities Law

What Does Madoff's Auditor Say? No Answer

Posted on December 16, 2008
The tiny auditor of Bernard Madoff's Wall Street firm, at the center of an alleged $50-billion Ponzi scheme, is being investigated by the district attorney in a New York City suburb.Friehling & Horowitz had signed off on the annual financial statement for Bernard L...

Proposed ?Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008?

Posted on September 28, 2008
Noteworthy language in the relief regarding market transparency, oversight and audit, and mark-to-market (MTM) FAS157 treatment:Section 114. Market Transparency.48-hour Reporting Requirement: The Secretary is required, within 2 business days of exercising authority under this Act, to publicly disclose the details of any transaction...

Gartner Magic Quadrant - GRC

Posted on August 09, 2008
Free report from Gartner on leading GRC applications, courtesy of MetricStream.

Large-caps set high corporate governance standards, but independence still an issue for some

Posted on May 29, 2008
For those that have felt the corporate governance requirements under SOX were unreasonable, consider these findings in Austrailia regarding corporate governance practices. The themes sound all too familiar.Australia?s largest publicly listed companies generally meet all aspects of best practice guidelines for corporate governance; however full independence still remains a key issue for some major companies...

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Lawsuits may expand Sarbanes-Oxley

Posted on May 29, 2008
Two lawsuits filed by former employees against Fidelity Investments may resolve a simmering dispute in the securities industry: Whether mutual fund employees are protected by a whistle-blower law adopted in the wake of corporate accounting scandals.The Sarbanes-Oxley Act does not specifically apply to the Fidelity Investments chairman's firm and other privately held companies...

Harsh internal IMF audit calls for 'major changes'

Posted on May 29, 2008
Internal auditors at the International Monetary Fund released a harshly critical report on governance Wednesday and urged "major changes" to maintain the embattled institution's relevance.The Independent Evaluation Office of the IMF said that effectiveness had been the strongest aspect of the 185-nation institution's governance, "while accountability and voice have been the weakest...

Survey: Enterprise risk management still a blind spot for insurance CFOs

Posted on May 29, 2008
The drumbeat for the use of enterprise risk management processes at major companies is getting louder thanks to the credit crisis.Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said yesterdayThursday that the credit crisis has exposed weaknesses in many financial firms? risk-management practices...

Board Adopts New Ethics and Independence Rule Concerning Communications with Audit Committees and an Amendment to its Existing Tax Services Rule

Posted on April 25, 2008
The Board adopted Rule 3526 to enhance communication between audit committees and registered firms regarding the firm's independence. Rule 3526 will require a registered public accounting firm, before accepting an initial engagement pursuant to the standards of the PCAOB, to describe in writing to the audit committee all relationships between the firm or any of its affiliates and the issuer or persons in a financial reporting oversight role at the issuer that may reasonably be thought to bear on the firm's independence...

Crunching the Words

Posted on April 25, 2008
When auditors seek evidence of fraud, they take a careful look at a company's financial statements. Maybe they should examine other statements, such as those uttered by company executives.That's the theory behind new fraud-detection software developed by two professors at Virginia Tech, who say that the story a company crafts around its numbers often says much about whether those number are solid...

SOX Life Blog: Knowledge Management and Corporate Governance

Posted on April 22, 2008
Knowledge Management (KM) is more than a buzz phrase running through organizations, so if you were hoping this discussion was going to abruptly end, think again.With so many organizations facing labor shortages as the baby boomers look toward retirement, it becomes not only a staffing but a very practical governance conversation about addressing this talent gap...

Board to Consider Adopting New Ethics and Independence Rule Concerning Communications with Audit Committees and Amending its Existing Tax Services Rul

Posted on April 17, 2008
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has scheduled an open meeting for Tuesday, April 22, at 9:30 a.m. in the Board's open meeting room at 1666 K St. NW, Washington, DC.The Board will consider adopting Rule 3526, Communication with Audit Committees Concerning Independence, which would supersede the Board's interim independence requirement, Independence Standards Board Standard No...

SOX Life Blog: Reader Question - Understanding & Evaluating Segregation of Duties

Posted on April 17, 2008
I appreciate when readers share their challenges in applying issues and concepts, as invariably there are an additional dozen people also struggling with this same topic.One professional writes:I am new at this and need to understand about SOX and SOD, do you have any other resources? I am looking for Purchases Orders to Negotiations for credit terms, to who enters the new vendor and who signs and who does Accounts Payable all the way through to Fixed Assets? Can you help or recommend a book on SOD or an inexpensive software solution?This reader had already come across a few past entries (Explaining Segregation of Duties, SOD Part II), and was still struggling with putting the concept into application...

Segregation of Duties Whitepaper: Minimizing the Cost and Complexity of Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance

Posted on April 16, 2008
Another resource available for those seeking to better understand and manage their SOD risks and issues.Corporate and IT executives continue to feel the pressures of assuringfederal regulators, auditors, boards of directors, and stockholders thatcorporate financial statements are accurate and precise...

Changing Ethics Compliance Rules And Their Potential Impact On Government Contractors And Investors

Posted on April 16, 2008
Recently, the US Government implemented a new rule and proposed yet more rules regarding ethics and corporate compliance programs for government contractors. This marks a continuing shift towards adopting a more aggressive approach in addressing government contractor fraud, which is similar to the protocols applied to other sectors of US industry...

Cox Seeks $1B Boost from Congress

Posted on April 16, 2008
Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox asked Congress to approve his nearly $1 billion budget request for fiscal year 2009.If lawmakers agree the SEC needs its first budget increase in three years, the commission will have realized a roughly 4 percent increase and be able to keep its staff levels the same as fiscal year 2007, Cox testified during an appropriations hearing before a House subcommittee on Wednesday...

The Changing Atmospherics of Corporate Crime Sentencing in the Post Sarbanes-Oxley Act Era

Posted on April 11, 2008
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has been viewed as a watershed event in dealing with corporate fraud. In addition to its extensive provisions dealing with internal controls and corporate accounting procedures, the law adopted new crimes and pushed the United States Sentencing Commission to enhance the Federal Sentencing Guidelines provisions for fraud and related offenses...

SOX Life Blog: Flagging the "SEC's SOX for Small Business Reference"

Posted on April 10, 2008
Dreading your pending SOX initiative? Or the thoughts of IPO? Or how you might refine your implementation?Hopefully, "Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404A Guide for Small Business" from the SEC takes some of the sting out of it. This incorporates much of the thinking and discussion in the last 18 months about "how much is enough" for small business...

How Long Should It Take to Restate?

Posted on April 10, 2008
Sometimes after announcing they need to restate their financials, companies go into shutdown mode. For up to two years, investors won't see a regulatory filing or hear a significant financial peep while a company tidies up its past.The Securities and Exchange Commission's Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting (CIFR) hopes to reduce the frequency of these so-called dark periods...

US company restatements soared 1997 to 2006--study

Posted on April 09, 2008
The frequency of financial restatements by U.S. public companies began to increase before the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate reform law was passed in 2002, according to a study commissioned by the U.S. Treasury Department and released on Wednesday.But restatements associated with fraud and revenue declined after 2001, said the report authored by Susan Scholz, a University of Kansas professor of accounting...

Blame for restatements may need a rethinking

Posted on April 09, 2008
The growing number of companies restating their financial results has been cited as a reason to ease U.S. accounting standards by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Treasury Department. But the restatement problem may not be the big bad wolf it was originally thought to be...

In Justice Shift, Corporate Deals Replace Trials

Posted on April 09, 2008
In 2005, federal authorities concluded that a Monsanto consultant had visited the home of an Indonesian official and, with the approval of a senior company executive, handed over an envelope stuffed with hundred-dollar bills. The money was meant as a bribe to win looser environmental regulations for Monsanto?s cotton crops, according to a court document...

Standard and Poor's - Use of ERM in Credit Rating

Posted on April 08, 2008
Maybe so much of the Sarbanes Oxley legistlation has been to simply bring US filers up to par with governance and risk management practices that have been maturing around the globe.Standard and Poor's, one of the leading credit rating agencies for capital markets, has begun their analysis of incorporating enterprise risk management (ERM) practices into credit rating - in Australian and New Zealand companies (with one of the longest lived bodies of risk management practice, dating back to 1995)...

It's time to embrace Risk Management

Posted on April 08, 2008
Since the advent of Sarbanes-Oxley, non-financial corporations have faced increasingly strong regulatory and compliance requirements aimed broadly at increasing transparency in their business practices. Risk management has been addressed at times, but usually as an afterthought...

PCAOB Addresses Emerging Audit Issues In 2008 Forums on Auditing in the Small Business Environment

Posted on April 07, 2008
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board today announced the 2008 series of its Forums on Auditing in the Small Business Environment. These forums are designed to help share important information with registered public accounting firms and public companies operating in the small business community...

Proposed Restatement Guidelines Draw Investor Alarm

Posted on March 16, 2008
Investor advocates are wary of a regulatory proposal that could decrease the number of times companies restate their financial results.Barbara Roper, director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America, contends that the suggested changes to the Securities and Exchange Commission's nearly 10-year-old materiality guidance ? which companies rely on to calculate an error's effect on financial statements ? will likely reduce transparency and encourage "shoddy practices" by unscrupulous companies...

Syms and the Future of Sarbanes-Oxley

Posted on March 12, 2008
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has many detractors. They claim that the Act is an over-burdensome piece of regulation, one that has imposed costly and unneeded obligations on issuers. It has driven U.S. companies to exit the public markets and ?go private,? and it has deterred non-U...

Good governance pays 18pc more

Posted on March 05, 2008
UK companies with exceptional corporate governance records generate returns 18 per cent higher than those with poor records, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI).The study analysed 654 UK FTSE All-Share companies over four years to 2007 using data from the ABI?s Institutional Voting and Information Service, which highlights breaches of good governance using a colour code system...

Acquisition is key to future growth

Posted on March 05, 2008
Financial solutions group Trintech has acquired Movaris, the risk and compliance solutions provider. The $5 million sale was due being finalised as Irish Computer went to press. Movaris is a pioneer in governance, risk and compliance processes. The California based firm has over 80 enterprise customers for its products, which streamline the process of turning aggregated financial and operational information into public financial statements...

The Current State Of Corporate Fraud Risk Management (FRM)

Posted on March 05, 2008
Now that the initial wave of Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance is becoming a distant memory and companies are well versed in the regulations, many would assume that organizations would be far along with implementing their comprehensive fraud risk management (FRM) strategies...

A Word From Ron Paul

Posted on March 05, 2008
Trailwatch reached out to each of the remaining presidential campaigns and offered them an unedited forum in which they could address voters. As he was when we requested information for our Candidate Screener, Ron Paul was the first candidate to respond to our offer...

Ignore a Whistleblower ? at Your Peril

Posted on March 05, 2008
A financial scandal at biotech company Dyadic International offers a telling lesson about how whistleblower memos can come back to haunt the executives who ignore them.Dyadic's internal dirty laundry first came to light at the company last April, when then-CFO Wayne Moor went to the company's Asian subsidiary to pick up the pieces after the unexpected death of an executive...

Current Research Questions on Internal Control over Financial Reporting Under Sarbanes-Oxley

Posted on March 05, 2008
from KPMG's "Audit Committee Insights" for March 5, 2008, originally published in the February 2008 issue of The CPA Journal.The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002's requirements regarding internal control over financial reporting requirements for management and auditors have had a profound effect on both public companies and public accounting firms...

Sarbanes in Switzerland?

Posted on March 04, 2008
When it comes to administration, the Swiss are famous for their efficiency and attention to detail. It is somewhat surprising, then, that a number of changes to company audit law are only now coming into effect. Most notably, from January 1st 2008 auditors must verify internal control systems at the companies they audit...

Compliance Week Survey: Sarbanes-Oxley Improvements on the Decline

Posted on March 04, 2008
Exclusive new research from Compliance Week shows companies that made improvements to their internal control over financial reporting in the wake of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) are expecting fewer improvements over time. The results also suggest that Auditing Standard No...

Board Proposes New Auditing Standard: Engagement Quality Review

Posted on February 27, 2008
(follow on to yesterday's announcement - with link to the proposed standard pdf)The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board voted today to propose for public comment a new auditing standard on engagement quality review and a conforming amendment to the Board?s interim quality control requirements...

PCAOB - Board Proposes New Auditing Standard: Engagement Quality Review

Posted on February 26, 2008
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board voted today to propose for public comment a new auditing standard on engagement quality review and a conforming amendment to the Board?s interim quality control requirements. This proposed standard would supersede the Board?s interim quality control standard, SECPS Requirements of Membership § 1000...

Speech By SEC Commissioner Kathleen L. Casey: Corporate Governance Issues And Trends

Posted on February 25, 2008
Excerpt from comments on CompetitivenessIn the last year, three major studies have called into question U.S. competitiveness. Each concludes that America is losing ground to foreign markets. They suggest that these trends may be caused by foreign markets developing and evolving ? no more than a natural growth and maturation in markets abroad...

Scrap the monthly bored meeting

Posted on February 25, 2008
Corporate collapse is in the air once again; loss and recrimination stalks the business world as bankers switch from being money marketers to capital conservers.Just how much risk capital will be lost during this credit squeeze is unknowable, of course, but it?s unlikely that the squeeze on equity is over yet...

Hospital?s Accounting Is Under Fire by a Union

Posted on February 23, 2008
A union is trying to force nonprofit groups like hospitals to comply with standards of governing similar to those that federal law requires of private companies.In particular, the union, the 1.9-million-member Service Employees International, argues that a Boston hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, violated those standards by including its losses from bad debts in its tally of the charity care it provides...

Small companies also can benefit from Sarbanes-Oxley

Posted on February 23, 2008
If you listened carefully, you could almost hear the collective sigh of relief from 5,000 smaller public companies when Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Christopher Cox proposed yet another extension to the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) deadline for an external audit of Internal Control over Financial Reporting (ICFR)...

Overseas whistleblowers protected by Sarbanes-Oxley?

Posted on February 19, 2008
Overseas employees of US-listed companies that uncover fraud that took place in the US can be protected under the US corporate governance legislation, according to a ruling made in New York.Judge Victor Marrero of the US District Court, found that Rosemary O?Mahoney, a Accenture employee based in Paris who claimed that the consultancy had carried out tax fraud, is entitled to protection under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act...

Whistle-blower site taken offline

Posted on February 19, 2008
Wikileaks.org, as it is known, was cut off from the internet following a California court ruling, the site says.The case was brought by a Swiss bank after "several hundred" documents were posted about its offshore activities.Other versions of the pages, hosted in countries such as Belgium and India, can still be accessed...

Corporate governance key to instituting stock market

Posted on February 10, 2008
Corporate governance is an essential condition to the establishment of a stock market, attracting major investment and developing national reserves which will lead to combating unemployment and reducing poverty, said Dr. Yahya al-Mutawakel, the Minister of Industry and Trade, during the launch of a corporate governance conference held last Wednesday...

Accountant shortage gets acute

Posted on February 08, 2008
Have a little pity on your company?s accounting department ? or at least their managers.A report released at the end of January confirmed that local companies are suffering the same shortage of accounting and finance professionals that national surveys have shown during the last several years...

Does Mass. Law Force Sarbox on Non-Profits?

Posted on February 08, 2008
A Massachusetts healthcare workers union is asking board members of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to apply Sarbanes-Oxley Act disclosure rules to the non-profit hospital's audits.The 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East sent letters to six of Beth Israel's 18 board members, who also serve as executives or sit on boards of public companies, citing state law as a precedent for the request...

SOX Life Blog: Risk-Based SOX Implementation - Deloitte Gets Succinct on Sarbox

Posted on February 06, 2008
For so many companies, internal discussions have largely gotten past SOX compliance to a point of business as usual.What I do appreciate however, is that good, clear guidance continues to be developed. For those many professionals that have moved onto new challenges, the issue now becomes one of implementing the familiar COSO framework in a new organization...

SEC Begins Small Business Costs and Benefits Study of Sarbanes-Oxley Act Section 404

Posted on February 05, 2008
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that its professional staff has commenced a cost-benefit study of an upcoming auditor attestation requirement for smaller companies under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.The study will collect and analyze extensive "real world" cost and benefit data from a broad array of companies currently complying with Section 404 under newly-issued guidance for companies and auditors...

Demand For Accountants On The Rise

Posted on February 05, 2008
Conventional wisdom said demand for accountants and auditors would have tapered off by now.Well, conventional wisdom was wrong.Staffing agencies such as Robert Half International, which specializes in pairing employers with accountants, say demand for talented, skilled professionals in the Tampa Bay area and around the country continues to rise, and salaries are growing...

Commentary: Postal Service readies for Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Posted on February 05, 2008
The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act includes a mandate that the U.S. Postal Service comply with Securities and Exchange Commission rules that implement the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) by fiscal 2010. The act requires corporations to report on the effectiveness of their internal controls, with the goal being to ensure the accuracy of financial reporting...

WorldCom Whistle-blower Cynthia Cooper

Posted on February 05, 2008
Think of her as the mother of 404.Not that that's a goal she ever imagined or one she has embraced. But the odyssey that began when Cynthia Cooper, the then?vice president of internal audit at WorldCom, decided to investigate anomalies in the company's accounting entries ended by inspiring critical ? and heavily criticized ? legislation: the U...

Accounting Firms Scramble To Find Experienced CPAs

Posted on January 24, 2008
Public-accounting firms are ramping up efforts to hire and retain senior-level talent as new auditing and accounting rules continue to fuel clients' need for their services. As demand grows, poaching among firms has intensified, and pay and perks are on the rise...

Citigroup Trial May Double Enron Creditors' Payout

Posted on January 24, 2008
Enron Corp. creditors could see their original payout more than quadruple to as much as $31 billion after a trial against Citigroup Inc.Enron Creditors Recovery Corp., the entity winding up the defunct energy trader's affairs, distributed $13.3 billion, or 36 cents on the dollar, since a bankruptcy plan was approved in 2004...

Board's Give Or Get More Expensive Now

Posted on January 22, 2008
More than half of nonprofits now require board members to make an annual contribution, with a major share of large ones setting a minimum of $5,000.That finding, in the new edition of National Board Governance Survey for Not-for-Profit Organizations conducted by the accounting firm Grant Thornton LLP, comes against a backdrop of more and more nonprofits reshaping board of directors practices and policies to fit the Sarbanes-Oxley Act...

?SEBI to deal with specific provisions on corporate governance for listed cos?

Posted on January 18, 2008
The new company law is likely to stipulate that specific provisions on corporate governance for listed companies, including the number of independent directors on the board, will be outlined by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.This would help curb the possible overlaps between SEBI and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), an official source said...

Corporate governance survey conducted (Pakistan)

Posted on January 18, 2008
International Finance Corporation (IFC), Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), and Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance (PICG) have commissioned and edited a Survey of Corporate Governance Practices in Pakistan 2007.The survey was meant to assist private and public sector companies to close any gaps between their current practices and the requirements of Pakistan?s Code of Corporate Governance 2002, as well as the guidelines given by internationally recognized best practice...

Enron-driven reforms are unraveling

Posted on January 18, 2008
Enron was the beginning, and now it's the end. The company's collapse in late 2001 alerted the investing public to the magnitude of corporate fraud. We realized no haven was safe.It meant that even the biggest of companies, the bluest of blue chip stocks could be vulnerable to the greed and hubris that lurked within its corporate offices...

Enron shareholders learn outcome of suit

Posted on January 16, 2008
Enron Corp. investors who sued the company more than six years ago are learning this week they'll receive an average of $6.79 per share for the common stock they owned.A court-approved mailing also notifies those who owned preferred stock they'll get $168...

Top court ruling goes against investors

Posted on January 16, 2008
The US Supreme Court put new limits on shareholder suits against a company's banks and business partners in a ruling that may thwart efforts to recoup billions of dollars lost in frauds at Enron Corp. and HealthSouth Corp.more stories like this * Supreme Court hears LG-Quanta patent case * Investors head into '08 amid setbacks * Victim to be heard at husband's trial * Court: Quiz on death penalty no mandate * Cranson man's federal appeal on crack sentence rejected*The justices, voting 5 to 3, threw out a lawsuit by Charter Communications Inc...

Tides of Change - Retooling of Accounting Standards

Posted on January 16, 2008
The Global Public Policy Symposium IV was recently held in NY, with representation and discussion among the top international auditing firms.With the ongoing discussion around more principle-based (IFRS) accounting standards versus the more familiar rules-based (GAAP) standards in the US, many are interested - if not regularly dialed into - the discussion of adoption and the implications of domestic adoption of IFRS...

Top audit firms push to use their own judgment

Posted on January 16, 2008
Auditors and corporate finance departments must be able to use professional judgment without being second-guessed if countries continue to adopt principle-based accounting standards, the chief executives of the top six global accounting networks argued in a white paper on Tuesday...

Corporate Governance - are you at risk?

Posted on January 16, 2008
Corporate Governance means more to the communicator than reputation management. When effective corporate governance promotes thriving organisations, market confidence and public trust. Internal communicators have a duty to be aware of the corporate governance responsibilities of their organisation, and to support it and enhance it...

First Convicted Backdater Sentenced to Prison

Posted on January 16, 2008
The former chief executive officer of Brocade Communications Systems was sentenced to 21 months and prison and ordered to pay a $15 million fine. He is the first executive to go to trial and be convicted for orchestrating a scheme to illegally backdate stock options...

FASB Codification Released; One Year Verification Phase Begins

Posted on January 15, 2008
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) announced the release of its draft Codification, and the start of the one year 'verification' period in which FASB is "encourag[ing]... use [of] the online Codification Research System free of charge to research accounting issues and provide feedback on whether the Codification content accurately reflects existing U...

Can the Nonprofit World Govern Itself?

Posted on January 15, 2008
In the wake of several high-profile charity scandals and with observers predicting that Congress will pass legislation similar to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for nonprofit organizations, Independent Sector convened the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector to create a set of guidelines designed to help groups govern themselves...

CMA committed to corporate governance practices: Al Jabri

Posted on January 15, 2008
The Capital Market Authority (CMA) is committed to promoting sound corporate governance practices in Oman, Yahya bin Said Al Jabri, executive president of the CMA said here yesterday. Recently, the capital market regulator had issued an administrative decision forming corporate governance committee to implement a corporate governance plan in Oman by disseminating information on international standards and practices...

Panel set up to develop practical guidance for audit committees

Posted on January 15, 2008
The Audit Committee Guidance Committee has been set up to develop practical guidance for audit committees. It will help to strengthen corporate governance practices of listed companies in Singapore, focusing on the practical aspects and considerations of the work of audit committees...

The SarBox: The bill for restatements can be costly

Posted on January 15, 2008
Do financial restatements mean anything these days? The Securities and Exchange Commission Advisory Committee on Financial Reporting is looking into the huge increase in financial restatements by public companies since Sarbanes-Oxley was passed in 2002?a review triggered, at least in part, by SarbOx critics who contend that restatements are expensive, time consuming and of questionable value to shareholders, who increasingly ignore them...

First-of-Its-Kind Report Quantifies Actual Cost of Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Compliance for Smaller Public Companies

Posted on January 10, 2008
Lord & Benoit, a SOX research and consulting firm, recently gathered empirical cost data to answer a crucial question that government officials, legislators, and business executives have been asking since June of 2007: "what exactly is the cost for a smaller public company to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404(a) and Section 404(b) regulations using the latest guidance issued by the SEC and PCAOB?" The data reveal that for non-accelerated filers, the total average first-year cost for management assessment and additional audit fees is $78,474, which is 13...

Speak Up, Mr. Buffett

Posted on December 31, 2007
Warren Buffett's entry into the muni bond insurance market could represent perfect timing, both financially and politically. Investors can only hope he'll seek to do good while doing well. Specifically, he can help put an end to an egregious double standard...

La Vita Less Dolce - SOX, Italian Style

Posted on December 31, 2007
Can you say "Sarbanes-Oxley" in Italian? According to some experts, it sounds like "law 262," though this is not an exact translation. Passed in 2005, two years after the massive accounting scandal at Italian dairy group Parmalat, 262 requires a manager at listed companies in the country to sign off all financial communications and certify reporting practices...

KPMG: Internal Audit Talent Shortage Challenges Companies, Audit Committees

Posted on December 13, 2007
Companies are struggling to find qualified internal audit talent, as audit departments cope with greater responsibilities while needing additional -- and different -- resources. Corporate management is asking internal audit to find new ways to help achieve strategic objectives...

FEI Members on Panels; FEI Committee on Corporate Reporting Comments on Concept Release

Posted on December 13, 2007
Four members of Financial Executives International (FEI), an association of senior financial executives, are among panelists appearing on the SEC?s IFRS roundtables. FEI members participating on today?s panel are Gregg L. Nelson, VP, Accounting Policy and Financial Reporting at IBM Corporation and Matthew Hilzinger, SVP and Corporate Controller, Exelon Corporation...

SEC?s Cox Tells House Small Bus Committee He Wants to Delay Sarbox External Audit Requirement for Small Co?s by Additional Year

Posted on December 12, 2007
According to written testimony prepared for a hearing of the House Small Business Committee taking place right now, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox will tell the committee: ?I intend to propose to the Commission that we authorize a further one-year delay in implementation for small businesses? in the requirement that small bus provide their first external auditor?s report on internal control, currently due effective year-end 2008, ?in order to base our decision on final implementation of section 404(b) on the best available cost data...

One-year Delay on 404 in the Works

Posted on December 12, 2007
After a year of listening to lawmakers hound him for another delay of the date when small companies must comply with the internal-control provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox says he plans to supply such a reprieve...

Security Governance and Risk Management

Posted on December 11, 2007
Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks company (NYSE: HHS), today announced a new research report on "Security Governance and Risk Management" which reveals that Best-in-Class organizations are more effective than their counterparts at allocating their IT resources and activities based on business objectives and acceptable levels of risk...

The Unexpected Benefits of SOX: A Conversation with Michael Oxley

Posted on December 11, 2007
In response to a series of corporate scandals, Congressman Michael Oxley and Senator Paul Sarbanes sponsored the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002. Conceived as an investor protection law, this wide-ranging legislation impacted U.S. public companies in many ways...

PCAOB Issues Staff Audit Practice Alert on Fair Value

Posted on December 10, 2007
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board today published a Staff Audit Practice Alert on the audit of fair value measurements in financial statements. The alert provides auditors with additional information related to auditing fair value measurements and disclosures, as well as the use of specialists in this area...

FASB sees its future as part of IASB

Posted on December 06, 2007
Robert Herz, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) chairman?s, wishful thinking is to see the day when FASB will become part of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). Speaking at the IFAC World Accountancy Forum during World Accountancy Week, he said it would be a single organisation, called the International Accounting Standards Board, but it would have an office in the US ?maybe in Norwalk, Connecticut? where FASB is based...

Companies Act 2006 will bring IT closer to business

Posted on December 06, 2007
Companies Act 2006, which comes into force in October 2009, is reminiscent of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the US. Sarbanes-Oxley has impinged mightily on the working lives of British IT professionals working for companies listed in the US, so the kinds of implications it bears are nothing new...

OCEG to Revise and Expand Framework ? Join the Process!

Posted on December 06, 2007
Since early 2005 OCEG?s Framework version 1.0 (?Red Book?) has served as a leading model for integrated governance, risk management, compliance and ethics management (GRC). It?s time to expand and revise this model.Join an unparalleled group of individuals with expertise in GRC issues from a wide range of global perspectives - legal, compliance, internal control, risk, and ethics - to participate in the Steering Committee for the OCEG Foundation 2...

Subprime Mess Could Be Bigger Than Enron

Posted on December 05, 2007
As the subprime mortgage meltdown grows, some experts are starting to see the resulting fallout rivaling corporate scandals of earlier this decade, like Enron, that prompted the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Even former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt expects to see more massive writedowns on the way...

KPMG study shows flaws in corporate reporting data

Posted on December 05, 2007
A recent KPMG study shows how badly companies are at meeting their projected earnings. It might make good fodder for class-action lawyers. Only 22% of companies came within 5% of their projections, according to the global study, entitled: Forecasting with Confidence...

PCAOB Issues for Comment Proposed Guidance Regarding the Implementation of PCAOB Rule 4012

Posted on December 05, 2007
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) today voted to issue for public comment a proposed policy statement that identifies the factors relevant to ?full reliance? by the Board on the inspections systems of its non-U.S. counterparts that are sufficiently rigorous to meet the level of protection for investors that is required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002...

Sarbanes Oxley compliance becoming easier

Posted on December 04, 2007
US companies are improving their compliance to the Sarbanes Oxley act, according to new research released this week. The Sarbanes Oxley legislation was signed into US law on the 30th July 2002 after data scandals such as those involving Enron, Tyco International and WorldCom, created a need for corporate governance...

Sarbanes-Oxley rules of '02 reshape Silicon Valley boards of directors

Posted on December 04, 2007
Silicon Valley companies have reshaped their corporate boards in the wake of the landmark Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and new stock market rules, according to a survey released today. Chiseling away at the stereotype that tech CEOs pack their boards with cronies, virtually all directors are independent outsiders, and companies routinely are splitting the roles of chairman and CEO...

Center for Audit Quality Survey Finds Majority of Nation's Investors Support Sarbanes Oxley Act

Posted on November 29, 2007
In a telephone survey conducted July 17-23, 2007, the Glover Park Group asked a series ofquestions related to investing, the capital markets and Sarbanes-Oxley. A summary of thefindings representing 1,001 investors nationally are included below.With a sample of this size, one can say with 95% certainty that the results have a samplingerror of +/- 3 percentage points of what they would be if the entire population of investors hadbeen polled with complete accuracy...

Europe Wins Another

Posted on November 27, 2007
From high fashion to high tech, businesses continue to find America's public securities markets to be a very expensive place to do business. This week brings news that Tommy Hilfiger Corp., which left the New York Stock Exchange to go private in 2006, may go public again, this time on the Amsterdam exchange...