Does the PCAOB’s proposal on naming lead audit partners for US listed issuer audits contemplate any exemptions? No, but they do exist in the jurisdictions that say they hold lead audit partners accountable.
How do the audit firms keep winning the war while losing battles left and right? They use the law and the courts to delay, deter and distract from transparency by settling, and sealing what they can, before the public can find out what silly arguments they often make in their defense.
Could the audit industry, which thrives on a government mandate that subsidizes an oligopolistic business model, survive if we went, catastrophically, from four to three global firms?
We now know more about what the firms have been hiding. The global capital markets, not just current shareholders, need full disclosure of the engagement teams on all public issuers over time, and in a way that is easily accessible.
There are five big auditor independence issues that space prevented a full discussion of yesterday and that are not on the agenda of the PCAOB SAG meeting this week. My hope is that regulators, policy makers and other interested parties will start talking about these issues, too, while I am in DC this week.
PwC says it will acquire Booz. Don’t count on the SEC or the PCAOB to stop PwC and its audit firm competitors from “slipping back” into the old conflicts between audit and consulting. Is anyone guarding the guardians?
Last defendant standing. Not an enviable place for EY in the case, In re Lehman Brothers Securities and Erisa Litigation. Holding out until the end has now cost EY $99 million, more than Lehman officers and directors.
Crain’s Chicago Business and journalist Steve Strahler have produced a series on the reemergence of the consulting arms of the Big Four audit firms with a particular focus on the Midwest and Chicago firm leadership. I’m quoted and there’s a nice photo.
Ratings agencies and Big Four auditors don’t think they should be held accountable for their respective products. Here are some of the crazy ways they argue their case.
If you read my writing about University of Chicago Booth School of Business Professors Chad Syverson and Joseph Gerakos and their paper on audit market exits, you may be interested in this post. It’s one of my first and it’s about the last GAO report on audit market competition.
Two new blog posts at University of Chicago Booth School of Business Capital Ideas blog. One is about public company CEOs who buy luxury items and break the law and the other is about auditor reputation. Now I need an example of a thrice-married and divorced audit partner with a gambling or drug addiction who owns a Ferrari and a private jet…
