News
PCAOB to host small issuer events
As you may know, the PCAOB is reaching out to small companies with two events in October. One forum is set for Oct. 1, at the Sofitel Hotel in Chicago. The second is set for The Rittenhouse Hotel in Read more...
Be careful about orphaned accounts
In the wake of the Jerome Kerviel "rogue trader" scandal at Societe Generale, a lot of banks have stepped up efforts to prevent such a scandal. But companies across the board need to think about Read more...
Companies move to end consultant conflicts
Compensation issues aren't strictly in-scope from a Sarbanes-Oxley perspective, except perhaps when it comes to backdating of options. Of course, if the auditor were retained to give compensation Read more...
D&O insurance costs rising
We've noted that boards of top financial firms haven't really been held accountable for the turbulence over the past year. But the subprime crisis is hitting home in another way: rising D&O Read more...
Ex-CEO weighs in on Sarbox and financial statements
T.J. Rodgers, the former CEO of Cypress Semiconductor, has authored a paper for the Cato Institute that argues that since Sarbanes-Oxley became law, financial statements have devolved to the point Read more...
Would more contingent liabilities disclosure make Sarbox compliance hard?
The FASB is responding to what it says is investor concern that current rules "do not provide adequate information to assist users of financial statements in assessing the likelihood, timing, and Read more...
Jury still out on Sarbanes-Oxley and IPOs
A San Jose Mercury News columnist notes that Sarbanes-Oxley has turned 6 and laments that he hasn't received a single invitation. Well, there were few parties in Silicon Valley, where Sarbox is still Read more...
Can you control for rumors in your firm?
The time-honored practice of market chatter and gossip may pose as something of a regulatory issue for a lot of Wall Street firms, on the sell-side and the buy-side. The fear is that the SEC intends Read more...
Accounting a hot field, colleges face demand hike
We often hear about a lack of financial expertise in Corporate America--at all levels, from entry level accountants to internal financial officers to qualified directors. The marketplace has Read more...
Beware downloads to external drives
This month, a financial analyst at Countrywide was arrested and charged with stealing customer data and then selling it. OpRisk & Compliance reports that his ability to steal data in this manner Read more...
Critics of XBRL hoping for a delay
Has the fact that small companies won a series of reprieves from compliance with 404(b) of Sarbanes-Oxley emboldened big companies facing an aggressive XBRL adoption mandate? Maybe. Big companies Read more...
Identity theft ringleaders charged
The sordid world of stolen identities was unveiled by Federal prosecutors when they charged 11 men of running a massive identity theft ring responsible for major breaches at national retailers over Read more...
Get a grip on encryption and databases
As you know, storage issues have rocketed to the forefront of the IT agenda, driven mainly by Sarbanes-Oxley and other compliance initiatives. That has made them targets for various hackers. SQL Read more...
Laptop with airport security program applicants missing
Yet another data breach? A laptop computer with the personal information of 33,000 passengers seeking to enroll in an airport security prescreening program--the irony is almost too much--has been Read more...
SEC promotes web as financial info release medium
The SEC has taken a keen interest in promoting new technologies as a way to distribute corporate financial information. The looming mandate for XBRL is an example. Similarly, the SEC just released Read more...