AUDIT COMMITTEE AND AUDITOR OVERSIGHT UPDATE

The Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) has released an updated version of its External Auditor Assessment Tool: A Tool for US Audit Committees . Audit committees are responsible for evaluating the external auditor, at least annually, and making a recommendation to the board on whether to retain the auditor. The assessment tool is designed to assist audit committees in performing this evaluation. The CAQ originally issued the U.S. assessment tool, along with a companion worldwide

Oversight of the risks and opportunities presented by artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the key challenges facing audit committees.  From March to June 2025, Tapestry Networks (Tapestry) convened six in-person meetings of its U.S. audit committee network to discuss the role of the board in ensuring that AI is implemented responsibly and consistent with long-term value creation. Tapestry’s audit committee network, which is organized and supported by Ernst & Young, is a gr

Public company audit fees rose to record levels last year. Ideagen Audit Analytics’ (IAA) annual analysis of fees paid to external auditors reports that, in FY2024, the average public company’s total payments to its auditor rose to $3.26 million, a nine percent increase from 2023.  See Audit fee trends: A 20-year review  (September 2025).  Average fees rose for the third consecutive year in 2024, a trend that IAA attributes to “the increasing complexity and regulatory demands

The Governance & Accountability Institute (G&AI) has released 2025 Sustainability Reporting In Focus , the fourteenth edition of its annual series tracking sustainability reporting. The report analyzes trends in sustainability reporting by companies in the S&P 500 and Russell 1000 indices.  In a press release  announcing the 2025 report, G&AI says that its research “shows continued increases in sustainability reporting for both large-cap and mid-cap U.S. public companies -- a

At the urging of President Trump, the Securities and Exchange Commission will consider whether to eliminate quarterly reporting. In a social media post on September 15, the President said, “Subject to SEC Approval, Companies and Corporations should no longer be forced to ‘Report’ on a quarterly basis (Quarterly Reporting!), but rather to Report on a ‘Six (6) Month Basis.’” He asserted that semi-annual reporting would allow management to “focus on properly running their compan

In a blog post  on the website of the National Association of Corporate Directors, the Center for Audit Quality’s Senior Director of Professional Practice, Vanessa Teitelbaum, suggests five questions that audit committees may want to ask their auditor regarding the firm’s PCAOB inspection report.   1.     How did your firm respond to areas identified as deficiencies in the inspection ?  This question provides “visibility into whether the auditor is taking corrective actions t

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s Office of Economic and Risk Analysis (OERA) has published Data Points: Financial Restatements and Auditor Turnover .  The report finds that, from 2005 to 2024, 29 percent of Big R restatements followed an auditor change in the previous year. For the entire public company population, the Big R restatement rate was around three percent. OERA’s analysis excludes investment companies, employee benefits plan, and restatements relate

Deloitte has published The Audit Committee Chair of the Future , a paper that explores the “emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities that are shaping the role of the audit committee chair.”  Deloitte interviewed audit committee chairs of S&P 500 companies from a range of industries.  Deloitte’s report “draws on their insights to provide practical guidance for navigating complexity and driving positive change.”  Below is a summary/overview of the paper.   ​The role of th

Fifty-five percent of directors think someone on their board should be replaced, up from 49 percent who wanted a fellow board member to depart in 2024.  That is one of the key findings of PwC’s 2025 Annual Corporate Directors Survey, Driving a culture of accountability in the boardroom .    PwC surveyed 638 directors. Seventy percent of the companies these directors represent have annual revenue of over $1 billion. Sixty-five percent of the respondents were men, and 32 percen

T wo surveys, one of individuals inside or with ties to public companies and the other of institutional investors, shed light on...

On August 28, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announced  that it was postponing the effective date of its new quality...

Autumn leaves are beginning to fall, but, on September 4, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs released the Spring...

California’s climate disclosure requirements have cleared a major hurdle.  On August 13, the U.S. District Court for the Central District...

Securities Analytics Research (SAR), a data analytics company specializing in securities litigation risk, has published U.S. Securities...

The number of companies that received a going concern opinion for fiscal year 2024 fell to the second-lowest level in the past 20 years....

In What Backlash? ESG Reporting Continues to Grow , September-October 2024 Update , the Update observed that, based on reporting during...

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has issued Engagement Acceptance , a publication in the Board’s Audit Focus series. ...

The Anti-Fraud Collaboration (AFC), a group consisting of the Center for Audit Quality, the Financial Executives International, the...

Q2 Audit Committee Guide , a new publication from PwC’s Governance Insights Center, discusses nine topics that audit committees should...