DOCSLIB.ORG

October 22, 2018 8:30 – 9:45 A.M

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
October 22, 2018 8:30 – 9:45 A.M Sunday | October 21, 2018 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Workshop 1: Win-Win Conversations: Transforming Conflict Into Collaboration Margie Bastolla, CIA, CRMA Principal Margie Bastolla Facilitations, LLC It’s a fact. Conflict is a part of life. Your attitude toward conflict will determine your success during difficult conversations at work and whether you achieve favorable results. Win-win conversations require that we learn why conversations fail, as well as proven methods to ensure that even our most difficult conversations have a high chance of success. In this session, participants will: • Identify key skills that underpin successful conversations and negotiations. • Discuss eight conflict triggers and five methods for managing them. • Learn how collaboration can be particularly effective when the stakes are high. • Discuss activities that lead to ongoing collaboration and trust throughout the audit. Margie Bastolla is a professional trainer and speaker who provides customized, onsite training for internal auditors on both technical and soft skill topics. She has worked in over 40 countries, conducting hundreds of seminars, workshops, and conference sessions for corporations, government entities, U.N. agencies, and IIA chapters and institutes. Bastolla draws on 30 years of leadership experience in internal auditing, international relations, association management, and public accounting. Previously, she was an executive with The IIA’s global headquarters and an auditor with Worthen Banking Corporation and Deloitte. Monday | October 22, 2018 8:30 – 9:45 a.m. General Session 1: Security in a Connected World Marc Goodman Global Security Strategist Author of Future Crimes Chair for Policy, Law, and Ethics, Silicon Valley’s Singularity University A huge proponent of technology, Marc Goodman knows that the positive aspects of the Internet are manifest. But as one of the world’s leading authorities on global security, he also recognizes that when it comes to technology, the increased scale of influence can be used both for good and for ill. In a global society run by computers, whoever controls the computer code can control the world. Every day we connect more and more devices to the Internet, ranging from laptops and mobile phones, to critical infrastructures including financial systems and electrical grids. We trust what our screens tell us, but all technologies can be hacked to provide a stealth window direct into an unsuspecting user’s home, office, family, or social life. In this eye-opening talk, Goodman provides access to his deep insights about the future of technology and where the next threats will come from, along with the preventative measures we need to take before it’s too late. Marc Goodman is a global strategist, author, and consultant focused on the profound change technology is having on security, business, and international affairs. He has been appointed by the FBI as their Futurist in Residence, is the founder of the Future Crimes Institute and currently serves as the Chair for Policy, Law, and Ethics at Silicon Valley’s Singularity University. Goodman has worked with organizations such as INTERPOL, the U.N. Counterterrorism Task Force, NATO, the U.S. Government and the Los Angeles Police Department. His forthcoming book, Future Crimes, will be published in February 2015. Monday | October 22, 2018 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CS 1-1: Emerging Technology Trends and the Impact to Audit: Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Brian Foster, CIA, CPA General Manager, Internal Audit Microsoft Corporation Gerard Morisseau, CISSP, CIPP Director, IT Audit Microsoft Corporation As companies adopt and integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their core services and business processes, the internal audit function needs to develop new competencies and a framework for auditing AI initiatives to provide assurance that related risks are adequately managed. The session will cover key trends in AI technologies, and the opportunities and risks associated with Machine Learning. It will also provide an overview of the recently published AI Audit Framework from the IIA. In this session, participants will: • Distinguish between artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology trends such as Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Augmented Intelligence. • Identify various types of intelligent AI machines. • Understand some of the key opportunities and risks associated with various applied AI initiatives. • Understand the different components of IIA’s new Artificial Intelligence Auditing Framework. Brian Foster has been with Microsoft nearly 20 years in a variety of roles. In addition to internal audit, he has served as the controller for several of Microsoft’s business units, including Office, Windows, Cloud & Enterprise, Devices, and Gaming. Within The IIA, Foster previously served on the Board for the Puget Sound Chapter in North America, and has been serving IIA Global since 2009 on the Professional Issues Committee, the Professional Certifications Board, and currently on the IT Guidance Committee. Prior to joining Microsoft, Foster was a divisional controller and corporate accounting manager at a leading entertainment and educational software company from 1996 to 1998, and spent 1994 to 1996 with Deloitte and Touche, serving clients in a variety of industries, including technology, retail, manufacturing, food and consumer products, and healthcare. Gerard Morisseau is responsible for overseeing the company’s programs for cybersecurity, Microsoft IT, Office 365, artificial intelligence, and Microsoft retail stores. During his time in internal audit, he has contributed to the security certifications of all major cloud services at Microsoft. Morisseau joined the information security team at Microsoft in 2007 as a program manager. In this role, he was responsible for leading security assessments and for developing the organization’s vendor security maturity assessment program. CS 1-2: Applying Analytics as a Core Audit Capability Ryan Kastner Global Head, Audit Analytics PayPal Session Description Being Finalized Ryan Kastner has over 20 years of progressive leadership experience covering internal audit, regulatory compliance, enterprise risk management, and business intelligence in financial services, with an emphasis in audit analytics and the payments industry. He has held both U.S.-centric and global roles at PayPal, First Data Corporation, and First National of Nebraska Inc. CS 1-3: Using Multiple Guidance Systems for the Governance of Enterprise IT Mark Thomas, CGEIT, CRISC President Escoute Counsulting As GRC activities are increasingly integrated into enterprises, it is critical to ensure a healthy balance between performance and conformance. This session will discuss how it is crucial to use multiple GPS-like systems to effectively steer GRC activities and focus on creating value. Using multiple viewpoints can help improve decision-making and strengthen an enterprise. In this session, participants will: • Recognize the importance of having multiple guidance systems to navigate GRC efforts in a holistic manner. • Learn how to leverage multiple perspectives and techniques in balancing performance and conformance when determining GRC priorities. • Gain insight into how to implement tactics and apply them to create value for your enterprise. Mark Thomas is an internationally known governance, risk, and compliance expert in the areas of cybersecurity, IT service management, assurance and audit, and IT controls. His background spans leadership roles from CIO to management and IT consulting in several federal and state agencies, private firms, and Fortune 500 companies. With over 25 years of professional experience, Thomas has led large IT teams, conducted information governance/risk activities for major initiatives, managed enterprise applications implementations, and implemented cybersecurity and governance processes across multiple industries. Additionally, he works as a consultative trainer and speaker, and earned the ISACA John Kuyers award for Best Speaker/Conference contributor in 2016. CS 1-4: Adding Value by Managing the Perception Gap Jeremy White, CISA Senior Director, Audit Services LifePoint Health The environment in which we work and the expectations under which we operate require that we shift to meet the definition of not just what we do, but of who we are as auditors. A key factor in successfully making that shift is managing perception. We all have a “reality” of who we are and what we do, but too often our “reality” is smashed on the rocks of someone else’s perception. It will be to the auditor’s benefit to identify and manage the perception gap that exists in their organization. In this session, participants will: • Explore the shift that every audit department is trying to make from a compliance and regulatory function to a value-adding business partner. • Discuss a very important — if not the most important — factor in that shift: Perception. • Identify ways to determine the current perception of your department and compare it with your defined reality or expectation. • Determine ways to manage the gap that exists between those two places — perception and reality — leading to adding value. Jeremy White has been involved in numerous facets of auditing over the past 16 years, beginning his professional career with Deloitte & Touche as an enterprise risk services consultant. After several years at Deloitte, he transitioned from public accounting into industry, particularly health
Load more

Recommended publications
  • July 27, 2020 the Markets (As of Market Close July 24, 2020) Last Week Started Off on a High Note As Stocks Reached Levels Not Seen Since February
    West Chester Capital Advisors, Inc. Steven M. Krawick, AIF®, AAMS, CMFC President and Chief Executive Officer 216 Franklin Street 12th Floor Johnstown, PA 15901 814-553-5127 [email protected] www.ameriserv.com Market Week: July 27, 2020 The Markets (as of market close July 24, 2020) Last week started off on a high note as stocks reached levels not seen since February. The Nasdaq gained 2.5% last Monday, led by a surging Amazon and Zoom Technologies soared to a record high following the publication of positive COVID-19 vaccine results. Investors were encouraged by signs out of Washington that additional stimulus was on the way. The S&P 500 advanced 0.8% on the day while the Dow's gain was negligible. The Russell 2000 recovered from a poor Monday by gaining 1.3% last Tuesday to lead the benchmark indexes listed here. The Global Dow rose 0.9%, buoyed by a new round of economic stimulus from the European Union. The Dow climbed 0.6%, and the S&P 500 inched up 0.2%. The Nasdaq retreated from its record high on Monday, giving back 0.8% last Tuesday. Wednesday saw equities rise despite an increase in tensions between the United States and China. Pfizer vaulted 5.1% on positive COVID-19 vaccine developments. The Dow and the S&P 500 each gained nearly 0.6%, with the latter reaching a five-month high. The Nasdaq and the Russell 2000 each gained 0.2% on the day. Stocks ended a 4-day run last Thursday, falling to their lowest levels in a week.
    [Show full text]
  • The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time: How Apple, Ford, IBM, Zappos, and Others Made Radical Choices That Changed the Cour
    The Greatest BUSINESS DECISIONS of All Time HOW APPLE, FORD, IBM, ZAPPOS, AND OTHERS MADE RADICAL CHOICES THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF BUSINESS. By Verne Harnish and the Editors of Fortune Foreword by Jim Collins . ACKNOWLEDGMENTS When you delve into the great decisions chronicled in these pages, you’ll find that in most instances it was the people involved that really mattered. The same holds true for producing this book. First, we want to thank Fortune managing editor Andy Serwer, who, displaying the vision and entrepreneurial spirit we’ve long admired him for, green-lighted this project in the same meeting in which we pitched it and then provided support all along the way. Fortune art director Emily Kehe, working with Time Inc.’s talented Anne-Michelle Gallero, applied their usual elegant sense of style to the design. Carol Gwinn, our copyeditor par excellence, used her superb language skills to save ourselves from ourselves. Steve Koepp and Joy Butts at Time Home Entertainment Inc., the book’s publisher, worked creatively behind the scenes to make this project a reality, and for that we’re truly grateful. And we extend our thanks and admiration to Jim Collins for providing such an insightful foreword to the book. Last, a big bow to the writers and editors on Fortune’s staff who used their in-depth knowledge of business and their nonpareil writing skills to make this book what I hope you’ll find to be a wonderful, informative read. TO DECISION-MAKERS WHO KEEP MAKING THE TOUGH CALLS . TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword BY JIM COLLINS Introduction By VERNE HARNISH Chapter 1 Apple Brings Back Steve Jobs By ADAM LASHINSKY Chapter 2 How Free Shipping Saved Zappos By JENNIFER REINGOLD Chapter 3 Why Samsung Lets Its Stars Goof Off BY NICHOLAS VARCHAVER Chapter 4 At Johnson & Johnson, the Shareholder Comes Last BY TIMOTHY K.
    [Show full text]
  • GAO-08-163 Audits of Public Companies
    United States Government Accountability Office Report to Congressional Addressees GAO January 2008 AUDITS OF PUBLIC COMPANIES Continued Concentration in Audit Market for Large Public Companies Does Not Call for Immediate Action GAO-08-163 January 2008 AUDITS OF PUBLIC COMPANIES Accountability Integrity Reliability Continued Concentration in Audit Market for Large Highlights Public Companies Does Not Call for Immediate Action Highlights of GAO-08-163, a report to congressional addressees Why GAO Did This Study What GAO Found GAO has prepared this report While the small public company audit market is much less concentrated, the under the Comptroller General’s four largest accounting firms continue to audit almost all large public authority as part of a continued companies. According to GAO’s survey, 82 percent of large public effort to assist Congress in companies—the Fortune 1000—saw their choice of auditor as limited to three reviewing concentration in the or fewer firms, and about 60 percent viewed competition in their audit market market for public company audits. as insufficient. Most small public companies reported being satisfied with the The small number of large auditor choices available to them. international accounting firms performing audits of almost all large public companies raises Percentage of Companies Audited by Four Largest Accounting Firms, by Company Size Percentage interest in potential effects on (Number of companies) 98%98% competition and the choices 100 95% 92% available to large companies 90% needing an auditor. This report 80 71% examines (1) concentration in the 60 market for public company audits, 44% (2) the potential for smaller 40 22% accounting firms’ growth to ease 20 market concentration, and (3) (1,606) (794) (1,190) (907) (498) (516) (1,211) (1,513) 0 proposals that have been offered 2002 2006 2002 2006 2002 2006 2002 2006 by others for easing concentration <$100 million $100 million - >$500 million - >$1 billion and the barriers facing smaller $500 million $1 billion firms in expanding their market Company revenue shares.
    [Show full text]
  • World Trusts Us
    Albaraka Türk Sustainability Report 2020 World TTrustsrusts Us Contents 10 KEY SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS 12 ALBARAKA TÜRK AT A GLANCE 12 Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG) in Brief 14 Albaraka Türk in Brief 16 Albaraka Türk’s Sustainability Journey 18 Shareholding Structure AAlbarakalbaraka TTürkürk is a bank building its entire business momodeldel 19 Our Mission and Vision 20 Our Quality Policy, Core Corporate Values and Strategic Objectives in accordance with sussustainabilitytainability and working for this 22 Operational Map 24 Our Awards purppurpose.ose. 26 MESSAGE FROM THE MANAGEMENT 26 Message from the Chairman 28 Message from the General Manager WWee ccarryarry out aallll our opoperationserations by ttakingaking intintoo account an 30 Message from the Chairman of the Sustainability Committee environmenvironmentalental impacimpactt and trustrustt approach. WeWe consider 32 OUR SUSTAINABILITY ORGANIZATION 32 Al Baraka Goals (2016-2020) the sosocial,cial, environmenvironmentalental and eeconomicconomic vavalueslues we have 34 Strategic Sustainability Areas 36 Sustainability and Social Responsibility Principles within the frframeworkamework of trustrustt and we aim ttoo pass these 37 Principles of Donations and Contributions 38 Our Sustainability Organization vavalueslues on ttoo future genergenerations.ations. 39 Our Committees 40 OUR SUSTAINABILITY ACTIVITIES 40 Our Corporate Governance Approach WWithinithin the scopscopee of sussustainabilitytainability efforefforts,ts, we continue 64 Our Financial Capital 68 Our Manufactured Capital ttoo ttakeake impimportantortant sstepsteps ttoo sosolvelve various worldwide 70 Our Human Capital 80 Our Intellectual Capital probproblemslems such as globagloball warmingwarming,, ccarbonarbon emission and 84 Our Natural Capital 90 Our Social and Relational Capital wawaterter probproblems,lems, and we continue ttoo rereceiveceive the ppositiveositive 94 LOOKING TO THE FUTURE resulresultsts of these ssteps.teps.
    [Show full text]
  • Linking Opportunity with Responsibility Sustainability Report 2004 P&G 2004 Sustainability Report 1
    Linking Opportunity with Responsibility Sustainability Report 2004 P&G 2004 Sustainability Report 1 Sustainable development is a very simple idea. It is about ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come.1 P&G’s Statement of Purpose We will provide branded products and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world’s consumers. As a result, consumers will reward us with leadership sales, profit and value creation, allowing our people, our shareholders, and the communities in which we live and work to prosper. Table of Contents CEO Statement 2 Vision 3 P&G Profile 4 Policies, Organization, and Management Systems 16 Performance 37 Environmental 39 Economic 49 Social 52 Sustainability In Action 53 Water 55 Health and Hygiene 56 Index 58 Contact Information 62 Addendum 63 This report was prepared using the Global Reporting Initiative’s On the Cover (GRI) July 2002 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. The mission A mother and child in Haiti drink clean water because of P&G’s Safe Drinking of the GRI is to promote international harmonization in the Water Program. Please see the reporting of relevant and credible corporate economic, Sustainability in Action section for environmental, and social performance information to enhance more details. responsible decision-making. The GRI pursues this mission through a multistakeholder process of open dialogue and collaboration in the design and implementation of widely applicable sustainability reporting guidelines. The GRI has not verified the contents of this report, nor does it take a position on the reliability of information reported herein.
    [Show full text]
  • Conspiracy of Fools”
    Submitted version of review published in GARP Risk Review Review of “Conspiracy of Fools” Joe Pimbley Kurt Eichenwald’s Conspiracy of Fools (Broadway Books, 2005) is a spellbinding account of the rise and fall of Enron. In nearly 700 pages the reader finds answers to “what happened?” and “how did it happen?” Based on retrospective interviews with more than a hundred primary and secondary actors in this drama, the author creates multiple, parallel story lines. He jumps back and forth between these sub-plots in a manner that maintains energy and gives the reader many natural stopping points. The great strengths of Conspiracy are that it’s thorough, extremely well- written, captivating, and, finally, it rings true. The author avoids the easy, simple conclusions that all the executives are “guilty” of crimes or plain greed and that the media-lionized whistle-blower is pure of heart. We see the ultimate outcome as personal tragedies for Jeff Skilling (President) and Ken Lay (CEO) even though they are undeniably culpable. Culpability and guilt are not synonymous, however, and different readers will have widely different judgments to render on these two men. The view of Andrew Fastow is not so murky. He and a handful of his associates did indeed lie, cheat, and steal for personal gain. Fastow’s principle “contribution” to Enron was the creation of structured finance transactions to skirt accounting rules. This one-sentence description doesn’t tell the reader much. Eichenwald gives many examples to flesh out the concept. The story of “Alpine Investors” provides the simplest case. The company wished to sell the Zond Corporation, a wind-farm operator, prior to the closing of Enron’s purchase of Portland General.
    [Show full text]
  • 1913 from the Very Beginning of the Firm, Arthur Andersen Insists That All
    1913 From the very beginning of the firm, Arthur Andersen insists that all his personnel get the “the facts behind the figures,” thus establishing the concept of a business-oriented audit. The Federal Reserve banking system is created. The 16th Amendment is ratified permitting federal income tax. 1914 The Federal Trade Commission and General Accounting Office are created. The Federal Reserve requires CPA certification of any financial statements submitted in support of applications for loans on commercial paper by member banks. 1915 Arthur Andersen takes the position that a Great Lakes steamship company had to reflect in its balance sheet the economic impact of a major post-year-end event—that is, the loss of a freighter in a storm. This was the first case of an auditor demanding disclosure of an event that occurred after year-end but before the issuance of the auditor’s report. 1916 The firm creates a formal recruitment program for college graduates. The American Association of Public Accountants (founded in 1887) changes its name to the American Institute of Accountants (AIA). 1917 The firm takes the lead in promoting tax work for industries and corporations and introduces a new concept of accounting for construction costs of public utilities, differentiating between overhead costs and direct costs. The first AIA examination is given. The Revenue Act of 1917 imposed the first excess profits tax. 1919 The first chapter of Beta Alpha Psi is established at the University of Illinois. 1921 The firm establishes a government liaison office in Washington, D.C. The American Society of Certified Public Accountants is founded in Washington.
    [Show full text]
  • Arthur Andersen Center for Financial Reporting Research Workshop
    Arthur Andersen Center for Financial Reporting Research Workshop Friday, February 14, 2020 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. 4151 Grainger Hall The Effect of Financial Reporting for Restructuring on Firm Choice of Divestiture Form Diana Weng Doctoral Candidate University of Florida FACULTY Ph.D. STUDENTS W. Choi T. Ahn M. Covaleski J. Ariel-Rohr F. Gaertner I. Baek E. Griffith A. Carlson S. Laplante D. Christensen T. Linsmeier Z. King D. Lynch M. Liang E. Matsumura B. Osswald B. Mayhew C. Partridge T. Thomas L. Rousseau D. Wangerin D. Samuel T. Warfield M. Vernon J. Wild K. Walker K. Zehms E. Wheeler The Effect of Financial Reporting for Restructuring on Firm Choice of Divestiture Form Diana Lynn Weng Fisher School of Accounting Warrington College of Business University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32611 Office phone: (352) 273-0227 February 2020 ** Do not quote without the author’s permission ** I thank my dissertation committee members Bobby Carnes, Marcus Kirk, Mike Ryngaert, and Jenny Tucker (chair) for guidance; Elia Ferracuti, Jennifer Glenn, Patrick Kielty, Jeffery Piao, and Mark Zakota for comments; and Jonathan Urbine for his assistance with the SEC filings. The Effect of Financial Reporting for Restructuring on Firm Choice of Divestiture Form ABSTRACT I examine whether financial reporting for restructuring influences managers’ choice of divestiture form. Firms have three major divestiture form options: a firm can sell a unit to another firm in a sell-off; sell a percentage of shares in a unit to new shareholders in an equity carve-out; or separate a unit and pro-ratably distribute the new unit’s shares to existing shareholders in a spin-off.
    [Show full text]
  • Here People Can Belong When They Travel by Being Connected to Local Cultures and Having Unique Travel Experiences
    ... for the implementation of sound, long-term tax policies that promote the global competitiveness of the U.S. high technology industry. Background The Silicon Valley Tax Directors Group is composed of representatives from leading high-technology companies with corporate offices predominantly located in the area between San Francisco and San Jose, California (widely known as the “Silicon Valley”). The group was formed in 1981 with current members representing the following companies: Organization Representative Autodesk SVTDG Co-Chair: Kirsten Nordlof; VP, Tax, Treasury, Risk and Procurement Cisco Systems, Inc. SVTDG Co-Chair: Robert F. Johnson; Sr. VP, Global Tax and Customs Dolby Laboratories, Inc. SVTDG Co-Chair: Grace L. Chu; Vice President, Tax and Treasurer Accenture N. James Shachoy; Senior Managing Director, Global Tax Activision Blizzard, Inc. Alex Biegert; Senior Vice President, Tax Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Steven Kurt Johnson; Senior Director, Head of Tax Agilent Technologies, Inc. Stephen A. Bonovich; Vice President, Tax Airbnb, Inc. Mirei Yasumatsu; Global Head of Tax Amazon, Inc. Kurt Lamp; Vice President | Global Tax Analog Devices Tom Cribben; Global Tax Director Ancestry.com Edward R. Gwynn; Vice President of Tax Apple Inc. Phillip Bullock; Senior Director of Taxes Applied Materials Steven K. Shee; Vice President - Tax Aptiv, PLC Tim Seitz; Vice President Tax, Trade & Government Affairs Arista Networks Inc Jennifer A. Raney; Head Of Global Tax & Treasury Atlassian Anthony J. Maggiore; Global Head of Tax Bio-Rad Laboratories Kris L. Fisher; Vice President, Global Tax BMC Software, Inc. Matt Howell; Vice President, Global Tax Broadcom Limited Ivy Pong; Vice President, Global Taxation Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    [Show full text]
  • Read Book Conspiracy of Fools: a True Story
    CONSPIRACY OF FOOLS: A TRUE STORY PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Kurt Eichenwald | 746 pages | 15 Jan 2006 | Random House USA Inc | 9780767911795 | English | New York, United States Conspiracy of Fools - Kurt Eichenwald You can trust the others. You're at a Fortune 50 company, so don't sweat the small stuff. Just don't make me look bad. This book is soon to be made into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. View all 4 comments. In it, Eichenwald does a decent job of combining the best of the three others, as if he poached some from each. Conspiracy reads as a novel, combining facts and details with presumably fictional conversations. The sometimes outrageous discussions between characters left me feeling that Eichenwald embellished a little too much, and at Conspiracy of Fools is the fourth Enron-related tale I've read Smartest Guys in the Room, Enron: The Rise and Fall, and Anatomy of Greed being the other three. He often leaves out the nitty gritty details best described by Smartest Guys in the Room, and relies too much on dramatics, like in Anatomy of Greed. And unlike Smartest Guys by far the most well written and complete chronicle of the rise and fall of Enron , Eichenwald has a definite bent to his story, almost insisting that Andrew Fastow was entirely to blame, while painting Jeff Skilling as a basket case whose emotional baggage blinded him to any wrongdoing, and Ken Lay as a social and political juggernaut with blinders on. Other former Enron executives, like Richard Causey and Rick Buy, take far too little blame for their roles in the special purpose entities that ultimately drove Enron under.
    [Show full text]
  • The Irrational Auditor and Irrational Liability
    LCB_10_1_PRITCHARD.DOC 3/17/2006 3:54:52 PM THE IRRATIONAL AUDITOR AND IRRATIONAL LIABILITY by A.C. Pritchard* This Article argues that less liability for auditors in certain areas might encourage more accurate and useful financial statements, or at least equally accurate statements at a lower cost. Audit quality is promoted by three incentives: reputation, regulation, and litigation. When we take reputation and regulation into account, exposing auditors to potentially massive liability may undermine the effectiveness of reputation and regulation, thereby diminishing integrity of audited financial statements. The relation of litigation to the other incentives that promote audit quality has become more important in light of the sea change that occurred in the regulation of the auditing profession with the adoption of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Given these fundamental changes in the regulatory backdrop, I argue that the marginal benefit of litigation has been substantially diminished and in many cases that it is likely to be ineffective in promoting greater audit quality. I propose a knowledge standard for auditor liability in securities fraud cases. I. THE ECONOMICS OF AUDITING ..........................................................23 A. The Value of Auditing..........................................................................23 B. Assessing the Quality of Auditing........................................................25 II. THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT AND THE REGULATION OF AUDITORS.................................................................................................28
    [Show full text]
  • Market Week: July 20, 2020 the Markets (As of Market Close July 17, 2020) Stocks Surged Early Last Monday Only to Fall Back by the End of the Day
    Bob Grillo, CFP®, AIF® 115 East Putnam Ave. 3rd Floor Greenwich, CT 06830 203-622-4990 [email protected] www.tempusadvisors.com Market Week: July 20, 2020 The Markets (as of market close July 17, 2020) Stocks surged early last Monday only to fall back by the end of the day. Earlier in the day, the S&P 500 reached its highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic sent equities reeling. The Nasdaq hit another record high in early trading. Unfortunately, stocks couldn't hold their values as states hard-hit by growing numbers of reported virus cases began to rein in reopening measures. European stocks climbed last Monday as did Treasury bond yields. Crude oil prices dipped ahead of an OPEC meeting that could result in plans to ease production cuts. Equities rebounded last Tuesday as the Dow rose 2.1%, the S&P 500 climbed 1.3%, the Nasdaq advanced 0.9%, and the Russell 2000 gained 1.76%. Treasury yields slid 3.91% while crude oil prices jumped 0.85%. Market sectors advancing last Tuesday included energy, materials, industrials, and consumer staples. Optimism about progress on a COVID-19 vaccine spurred investors last Wednesday. By the end of the day, the Russell 2000 jumped 3.5%, followed by the Global Dow, which advanced 1.3%. The S&P 500 gained 0.9%, the Dow increased 0.85%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.6%. Crude oil and Treasury yields grew while the dollar fell. Banks led financial stocks higher, and energy stocks also climbed. A drop in technology shares pulled stocks lower last Thursday, ending a two-day rally.
    [Show full text]