Accounting standards

Mary Schapiro, President-elect Barack Obama's choice as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, signaled that she could delay the planned transition to International Financial Reporting Standards.

Henry R. Keizer is global head of audit for KPMG International and also serves as U.S. vice chair, audit, for the U.S. member firm, KPMG LLP.

Fitch Ratings predicts that 2009 will be a pivotal year for accounting, particularly in terms of fair value measurement and standards convergence.

The Private Company Financial Reporting Committee met with the Financial Accounting Standards Board to discuss some of the problems that led to deferring controversial rules for accounting for uncertainty in income taxes.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said the financial statements of non-public broker-dealers now need to be certified by PCAOB-registered auditing firms.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has appointed James L. Kroeker as acting chief accountant, replacing Conrad Hewitt, who retired Monday.

SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz told a congressional panel that the Securities and Exchange Commission is ramping up its investigation of Bernard Madoff and his $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Fear that the U.S. economic meltdown will encourage corporations to cut accounting corners has helped spur the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to approve a 9 percent budget increase for itself during 2009, to $157.6 million."Current market conditions suggest that our inspectors may be dealing with even more complex issues next year when they review 2008 audits," PCAOB Chairman Mark W. Olson said in announcing the new budget.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chief Accountant Conrad Hewitt announced that he will leave the regulator as the Obama administration takes over. Also leaving will be John White, the director of the Division of Corporate Finance.SEC Chairman Christopher Cox had said previously that he will leave upon the change in administration.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board by its own accounts had a very productive 2008, and it looks like its output will be even higher in 2009.Though much of 2008 was dedicated to issuing discussion papers that may eventually lead to standards and documents in 2009, the past year saw new standards on accounting for financial guarantee insurance contracts, the hierarchy of generally accepted accounting principles, and disclosures about derivative instruments and hedging activities.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has released a staff position officially deferring the effective date of FASB Interpretation 48, "Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes," for nonpublic pass-through entities and nonprofit organizations, and released guidance on accounting for the assets in postretirement plans.

Susan G. Markel, chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement, is stepping down after 14 years at the agency.

The Center for Audit Quality has released a paper to provide guidance on applying accounting standards to residential mortgage modifications.

The International Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board have attracted a set of high-profile members from around the world to form an advisory group on the financial crisis.

Once again it’s the time of year for me to make resolutions that I probably won’t keep for five minutes.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has released its eagerly anticipated report on mark-to-market accounting calling for improvements in fair value accounting standards, but not suspension of them.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has modernized its oil and gas company reporting requirements for the first time in more than 25 years.

Hopefully there will be many lessons learned from the Bernard Madoff scandal once there is a better understanding of exactly what happened. I am sure there will be a number of in-depth books written on the subject. There will be chapters on asset allocation, due diligence, risk management, the SEC, internal operations of investment companies, compliance officers, investment advisors, fund of funds, hedge funds, auditors, peer review, whistleblowers, independent custodians, lawsuits, transparency, and regulatory change. All of the above are very interesting, but the chapter that I am most interested in is the one on human nature.

Members of the Financial Accounting Standards Board came under pressure to relax fair value accounting rules when banking regulators would not change their capitalization requirements. FASB decided to loosen rules that kept banks from accounting for the cash flows they expected from mortgage-backed securities and other assets during impairment tests when they are categorized as available for sale, rather than just as held to maturity.

The Internal Revenue Service is proposing temporary regulations on foreign base company sales income.