The Oversight of the Audit Profession : Supervising a supervisor

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 reporting and auditing in the UK, US and Germany. During the last years these frameworks were noticeably changed. These changes arose especially from political interest in accounting regulation following the Enron collapse. The main change in the US was the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act containing strict regulations for auditors, including their responsibilities 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 to regulate and control auditors of public companies. Thus the "Public Company Accounting Oversight Board" was established. The PCAOB is a private-sector non-profit overseer, supervised by the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) which regulates basically anything related to the securities market. Following the collapse of Enron and the turbulence in the UK markets that followed, a review of financial regulation in the UK was ordered, covering for example auditor independence, corporate governance, financial reporting and auditing standards and accountability of audit firms. 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. The FRC 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 Auditor Oversight Law. It is in charge of the public oversight of all activities of the German Chamber of Public Accounta