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(UPDATE) Bonus Watch ’10: PwC Holiday Payouts Coming In

This just in:

PwC West Coast just got issued the increased spot bonuses you talked about in this article:


[Bonus Watch: Pre-Turkey Spot Bonuses at PwC?]

From what I have gathered, they were either $1,500 or $2,000 in amount. (I have talked to several peers about this)

This is in addition to chatter we heard last week about bonuses being awarded in New York. If your city’s office is spreading the holiday cheer, discuss below or email us the details.

UPDATE, Thursday circa 11:00 am: Another tipster begs to differ on the amount:

I haven’t checked my paycheck yet- but my bonus sure as heck wasn’t $1500-$2000. I was told I was getting about $800.

Is Citi One of the Issuers in the PCAOB’s Inspection Report of KPMG?

The long-awaited PCAOB inspection report of KPMG came out on Friday and while we were excited for this unveiling, the Board managed to issue the report at around 4 pm on Friday. Since the Board lacks any sense of timing whatsoever, we opted to punt on our respective post until today because well, we’re human and not a soulless blogging robot as likely perceived by TPTB at the PCAOB.

It’s worth mentioning that this is the first PCAOB report that has been issued since the SEC’s final rule on the inspections that allows audit firms to postpone the release of the report simply by taking issue with any of the findings. Since any appeal could reportedly delay the report by “30 to 100 days,” it’s safe to assume that, with a report date of October 5th, KPMG didn’t have a beef with the findings. You could also assume that since the SEC is taking a peek at these reports now, there’s going to be a ten day lag on the release of the report to allow the Commission enough time to give it their extra-special sniff test.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand –

KPMG had eight issuers noted in the Board’s inspection report and the first two are doozies. “Issuer A” runs approximately two pages and includes failure on testing of “allowance for loan losses” to “test[ing] the issuer’s estimates of fair values of financial instruments” and goodwill impairment.

“Issuer B” is a little more interesting since one of the failures the Board found was related to deferred tax assets which makes us wonder if this is Citi, since analyst Mike Mayo was loudly questioning the bank’s treatment of its DTA. Francine McKenna not-so-subtly solicited guesses on Friday as to who this “bank” might be (even though no issuer is identified as such) but it does make us wonder.

The Board cites run-of-the-mill failures for the rest of the issuers (e.g. fair value testing, pension plan testing, failure to confirm cash[!]) and the House of Klynveld’s response letter was cordial and anticlimactic.

But if you’re KPMG, do you really care what the PCAOB thinks when you’ve got an adorable gnome-ish looking analyst giving you the tepid thumbs-up (despite not knowing your name)? That’s the only endorsement we would need.

2010_KPMG_LLP