(September 6 – 09:45 ET) – The Securities and Exchange Commission has released an agenda for its next round of public hearings on proposed auditor independence rules, including an appearance from David Brown, chairman of the Ontario Securities Commission.
The hearings will take place in New York City on September 13. The first session of the day will feature noted inflation hawk Laurence Meyer, Governor of Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and former Fed chairman Paul Volcker.
Brown will be joined in the second session by John Whitehead, retired chairman of Goldman Sachs & Co.
The SEC is considering proposals to modernize its auditor independence requirements by providing governing principles for determining whether an auditor is independent.
The proposals would significantly reduce the number of audit firm employees and their family members whose investments in audit clients are attributed to the auditor. They also identify certain non-audit services that could impair an auditor’s independence
The proposals provide a limited exception for accounting firms that have certain quality controls and satisfy other conditions. They also require companies to disclose in their annual proxy statements certain information about, among other things, non-audit services provided by their auditors during the last fiscal year.
Along with luminaries such as Meyer and Volcker, the commission will also hear from corporate CFOs, pension fund counsel, accountants, Tom Gardner co-founder of The Motley Fool Inc., and several auditors and educators.
The commission will hold another hearing on September 20.
-IE Staff