PCAOB Archives - Americans for Financial Reform

Letters to the Regulators: Letter to PCAOB Supporting Proposed Audit Standards to Report Noncompliance with Laws and Regulations, Including Climate Regulations

AFREF joined Public Citizen in a comment urging PCAOB to strengthen and swiftly finalize its proposed updated audit standards around reporting noncompliance with laws and regulations and identifying risks of material misstatement in financial statements. Climate-related accounting fraud is on the rise, and many companies are misrepresenting their financial position by underestimating their asset retirement obligations and environmental liabilities, and failing to substantiate public climate commitments in their financial statements and SEC filings.

The proposed regulatory updates from PCAOB would strengthen auditors’ responsibilities to identify and report these types of misstatements and fraud and provide a significant benefit to investors by catching costly noncompliance issues early before they harm financial performance, and to the public by deterring corporate law-breaking and noncompliance.

Letters to Regulators: PCAOB Should Update “General Responsibilities” of Auditors, Address Climate Accounting Estimates and Assumptions

AFREF joined Public Citizen in responding to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s request for comment on General Responsibilities of the Auditor in Conducting an Audit (AS 1000). We commended the PCAOB for proposing to extend an auditor’s evaluation of fairness in AS 2810 beyond

A pair of hands writing on paper with a pen

Letters to Regulators: Letter to PCAOB in Response to Request for Comment on Interim Analysis of Estimates and Specialists Audit Requirements

AFREF and Public Citizen sent a letter to PCAOB in response to their request for comment on their Interim Analysis of Estimates and Specialists Audit Requirements.

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Letters to Regulators: Letter Opposing the PCAOB’s Rushed Rule Weakening Auditor Independence Standards

Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund signs onto a letter from Consumer Federation of America opposing the PCAOB’s proposal to weaken auditor independence standards. The proposed rule will undermine investors’ faith in the reliability of financial disclosures, and risk the integrity of our capital markets. Furthermore, the PCAOB has abused process by adopting these changes without opportunity for public comment and hurrying the SEC approval process without justification. The undersigned urge the SEC to deny the requested rule change.

Letters to Regulators: Joint letter to the SEC urging Chairman Clayton to withdraw anti-investor guidance that would undermine independent audits of public companies.

View or download a PDF version of the letter. Consumer Federation of America AFL-CIO Better Markets Center for American Progress Americans for Financial Reform November 21, 2018 Dear Chairman Clayton: We are writing to express our grave concerns regarding PCAOB staff guidance on Rule 3526(b),