UBS Joins Franc-Protection Racket
If you still trust auditors' approbation, there's probably not much that will change your mind. But it never hurts to know that:
The biggest U.S. audit firms are failing to properly test some companies' financial controls, one of the main bulwarks against fraud, an audit watchdog group said on Monday.
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said that internal control checks—mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act—were deficient in 22% of audits the regulator has looked at this year. It still has more audits to double-check, but board member Jeanette Franzel doesn't like the look of it.
The trend is going in the wrong direction.
The PCAOB cited the "Big Four" accounting firms as well as second-tier firms. And the firms—through their mouthpiece, the Center for Audit Quality—don't necessarily disagree that they're doing a crap job.
CAQ Executive Director Cindy Fornelli said in a statement that the firms realized they need to improve and "devoted significant additional resources" to that area over the past year.
US watchdog says auditors not doing their jobs much of the time 'Control' Problems Cited [WSJ]
US watchdog warns on auditor failings [FT]