SEC Issues in 2013

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants held its annual “Current SEC & PCAOB Developments Conference” in Washington, D.C., in the first week of December 2012. A dominant theme was why accounting convergence has not happened yet. Attention was also paid to other international affairs, like the failure of firms to provide the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with access to workpapers on audits of Chinese companies under investigation for accounting malfeasance. And on the very first day of the conference, the SEC announced the beginning of proceedings against the Big Four firms plus BDO for failure to cooperate. The authors of this article report in depth on this and other conference issues.