PCAOB and SEC Regulators Warn AICPA

The AICPA’s chairman Richard Caturano recently addressed a number of charted professional accountants at a conference organized by AICPA. The conference focused on the development of the existing PCAOB and SEC developments in Washington. During the conference Caturano assured the audience that the Institute is committed towards engaging with the regulators.

Luis Aguilar- SEC commissioner, James Doty PCAOB chairman, Paul Beswick-SEC’s acting chief accountant and many top professionals and officials from the accounting and auditing industry gave their respective speeches at the conference.

Richard Caturano stated that the AICPA is committed towards holding positive discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as others. He also stated that together they are having a common goal that revolves around maintaining and managing regulatory related consistency between different layers of federal and state regulations. Caturano also reinstated that the profession of charted professional accountants is going to continue its efforts towards taking a position on leading regulatory and financial matters, which could affect them. Some of the matters that the CPAs will take position on include, implementing the Dodd-Frank Act, which is related to auditing and accounting. Caturano also clarified that AICPA will continue to work towards becoming an advocate, defender and resource of protection for investors.

On the other hand, Aguilar reflected on the relevance of the profession of audit. He cited the research conducted by SEC, which carried out an assessment of the effectiveness of auditing of internal controls, and said that the study found that finance related reporting is more effective and reliable where the auditor involves with the assessments of internal controls as well as the investors view the attestation from auditor as an advantage.

Aguilar also mentioned that the study revealed proof that auditor’s internal control testing has usually resulted in the disclosing of control related problems, which the management did not disclose previously. He also clarified that testing by auditor has also had a very positive impact on the reporting quality.

Paul Beswick held discussions on several topics like FASB and IASB convergence related efforts. Beswick pointed out that there has been a delay in setting standard. Paul also mentioned that given that both FASB and IASB have worked on the projects for over ten years he is hoping that, they will soon be completed.