The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announced last week that it has scheduled a Standing Advisory Group meeting for September 8 and 9 to review existing auditing standards and to discuss potential future standards. The group will meet on Wednesday, September 8, from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. and on Thursday, September 9, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The two-day meeting will be held in the Marriott at Metro Center’s ballroom located at 775 12th Street, NW, Washington, DC.

In response to Sarbanes-Oxley and increased attention from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Brown Smith Wallace of St. Louis, an accounting and consulting firm, is expanding into the Chicago market. “The Chicago team, which will be located 200 South Wacker Drive, will serve the firms’ insurance and reinsurance clients in the upper Midwest,” says Brown Smith Wallace Managing Member Jeffrey Smith, CPA.

With the big increase in the number of breakups between corporations and their auditors, the Securities and Exchange Commission is looking for the reasons why.By the end of last month, more than 900 businesses said goodbye to their auditors - about the same number as in all 12 months of the previous year.

Grant Thornton LLP plans to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that the firm aided and abetted securities fraud by paying $1.5 million and training employees in fraud detection.According to the Wall Street Journal, the settlement is expected to be unveiled today. Grant Thornton will agree to institute a new fraud training program for its entire staff at a cost of at least $1 million.

Auditors in the United Kingdom are being directed to be extra vigilant for fraud as companies may be tempted to manipulate their numbers during the transition to international accounting standards.The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) is warning auditors to be on the lookout for inaccuracies and to refuse to sign off on accounts if necessary, the Financial Times of London reported.The first set of accounts under the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) rules may be questionable in some cases because companies must restate their opening balance she

By a margin of nearly two to one, large U.S. companies have made compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act part of their regular corporate governance approach and have integrated it with other regulatory activities, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' Management Barometer.The survey of senior executives at U.S.-based multinational companies found that:64 percent say their company's senior management and board of directors see Sarbanes-Oxley as one of many steps in a larger corporate governance initiative, while 30 percent say it is simply a goal to be achieved.

Do the auditor independence rules outlined in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 go far enough or should they be tweaked to include language governing tax advice?

A lawsuit charging Big Four accounting firm Ernst & Young with fraud and negligence in relation to the 2001 failure of a Chicago savings and loan has been ruled to be without merit by a three-judge panel in Chicago, the Associated Press reported.The $2 billion lawsuit, brought by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, sought damages from Ernst & Young for the more than $500 million lost by the agency’s insurance fund, plus triple damages, the AP reported. The FDIC accused Ernst & Young of misstating Superior Bank’s assets.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) this week announced the participants in a July 14, 2004, roundtable meeting to discuss issues relating to tax services and auditor independence.Participants include representatives from accounting firms, public companies, investors and regulators.The meeting will be held from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Presidential Room at the Capital Hilton, at 1001 16th St., N.W., in Washington, D.C.The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 authorized the PCAOB to establish rules and standards for auditor independence.