The oversight of the audit profession

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Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0, University of Glamorgan (Business School), course: International Accounting & Audit, 23 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: This paper provides an overview of the current regulatory frameworks for financial reportingand auditing in the UK, US and Germany. During the last years these frameworks werenoticeably changed. These changes arose especially from political interest in accountingregulation following the Enron collapse. The main change in the US was the introduction ofthe Sarbanes-Oxley Act containing strict regulations for auditors, including theirresponsibilities and services. It also contains a list of prohibited audit activities, the so-called“non-audit” services. The main feature of the Act was the creation of an oversight board toregulate and control auditors of public companies. Thus the “Public Company AccountingOversight Board” was established. The PCAOB is a private-sector non-profit overseer,supervised by the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) which regulates basicallyanything related to the securities market.Following the collapse of Enron and the turbulence in the UK markets that followed, a reviewof financial regulation in the UK was ordered, covering for example auditor independence,corporate governance, financial reporting and auditing standards and accountability of auditfirms. In order to restore credibility in UK accounting the Financial Reporting Council (FRC),an independent private sector body funded by the accountancy profession, was set up. TheFRC has several subsidiary bodies, including the Professional Oversight Board (POB)providing independent oversight of the regulation of the auditing profession.The German Auditor Oversight Commission (AOC) was established according to the AuditorOversight Law. It is in charge of the public oversight of all activities of the German Chamberof Public Accountants (WPK) with respect to statutory auditors. The Commission has theultimate responsibility in the areas of licensing, registration, disciplinary investigations andquality assurance, all with respect to members of WPK entitled to provide statutory auditservices (WPK, n.d.).It is argued that these new regulations impose another layer of bureaucracy with significantcosts for very little apparent gain. But ethical issues surrounding the public’s perception ofauditor performance need to be addressed, not just for the sake of the profession, but for theefficiency and effectiveness of capital markets in general (Malthus and Scoble, 2005).