CAQ Pilot Tests Audit Quality Indicators [AT]
New acronym alert — AQIs are here: "The CAQ Approach to Audit Quality Indicators represents a two-year effort with firms to develop perspectives on which audit quality indicators could be the most relevant and how and to whom they should be communicated. The paper describes in detail the CAQ’s approach to communicate a set of potential audit quality indicators, or AQIs, which will be pilot-tested by CAQ member firms with select audit committees. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has been developing its own set of audit quality indicators, and the CAQ’s pilot test could provide some valuable feedback that may influence which indicators the PCAOB ends up adopting."
Field Testing the PCAOB’s Auditor Reporting Model [FEI]
Here's Edith Orenstein on the CAQ kicking off the field testing: "The CAQ calls itself an ‘autonomous’ organization that works in the interests of investors, auditors and the capital markets. At the same time, it is an affiliate of the AICPA, and a majority of positions on its governing board are allocated to the audit profession. While some may be skeptical of the results of the field test it has led, the CAQ – like FEI’s CCR, agrees that the ultimate responsibility for cost-benefit analysis lies with the PCAOB itself."
9th Circ. Rejects Suit Over Ernst & Young's IndyMac Audit [Law360]
You'll get 'em after the next crisis, investors! "The Ninth Circuit on Thursday refused to revive a former IndyMac Bancorp Inc. investor’s proposed securities class action accusing Ernst & Young LLP of concealing the bank’s perilous condition before its collapse, agreeing with the district court that the plaintiff had failed to state a claim."
In Bitcoin We Don’t Trust [CFO]
Finance and treasury departments aren't quite on board yet: "Business adoption, after all, is critical to Bitcoin. Although many entrepreneurs are starting up companies to facilitate Bitcoin transactions, there is no evidence that acceptance of the electronic currency in nonfinancial industries is anywhere close to accelerating. One of the currency’s big obstacles is the so-called network effect: as with the telephone, the value of Bitcoin or any other virtual currency is dependent on the number of other users using it."
A(m)way to deduct your car? [Tax Update]
Joe Kristan avoids Amway clients because of cases just like this.
I Can't Stop Watching This Insect Having an Existential Crisis [io9]
With Ride of the Valkyries as the soundtrack, no less.
