SEC

No legislated cap on audit liability

September 28, 2009 Tax and Ethics

The TimesOnLine has the story under the title: Audit firms left unprotected against claims of negligence. Under present company law, directors can agree to restrict their auditors’ liability if shareholders approve; however, to date, no blue-chip company has done so. Directors have seen little advantage in limiting their auditors’ liability, and objections by the US [...]

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Will XBRL open up a Pandora's box?

March 30, 2009 General

Neil Hannon may have unwittingly opened a Pandora’s Box over the upcoming use of XBRL. Discussing a common situation where “…and other” gets added into an accounts classification, he says – and quotes from a conversation with Louis Matherne, former XBRL International President and XBRL consultant: The company balance sheet says “prepaid expenses and other”. [...]

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Apple fires KPMG, hires EY

March 5, 2009 General

Apple has fired KPMG as auditor after 12 years, preferring Ernst Young. It’s a strange move because the regulatory announcement didn’t imply any particular disagreement between KPMG and Apple. OK – so Apple has had a run in with the SEC concerning backdated stock options but that’s not unusual in the context of the way [...]

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Innovation in audit oversight

January 8, 2009 Innovation

I bet you never thought you’d see that as a headline. Neither did I but then Joe Weisenthal’s ‘Nuke the SEC’ post I started to think differently. Let’s start with Joe’s assertions: First, we nuke the SEC. This isn’t really that radical. There’s precious little evidence that it does what it purports to — namely, [...]

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Just when you thought it couldn't get crazier

October 1, 2008 General

Courtesy of the Washington Post which amply demonstrates a solid lack of understanding about ‘value’ in accounting comes this pearl. The SEC and FASB are allegedly modifying the ‘mark to market‘ rules to allow distressed banks to take into account ‘other factors’ when reviewing their toxic assets. WashPo says this: An odd-sounding accounting phrase at [...]

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Should we be concerned over new Reg FD guidance?

August 1, 2008 General

Over at ZDNet, I’ve written an analysis of what I see as the possible impact of new SEC guidance under Reg FD. In essence, the SEC is pointing the way towards company websites and blogs in particular being used as an alternative medium by which information is made available to the public. It’s a novel [...]

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