Analysis: Citi’s pay rejection a wake-up call to boards
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Institutional investors are increasingly pressing boards to rein in outsized executive pay, and after Citigroup (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) shareholders rejected a compensation plan on Tuesday, more directors may start listening.
Shareholders on Tuesday handed Citigroup an embarrassing no confidence vote on a $15 million pay package for its Chief Executive Vikram Pandit. About 55 percent of shareholders rejected a plan to bring Pandit’s pay back close to levels before the global financial crisis.
Groupon accounting problems put spotlight on board
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Groupon Inc, the online coupon company that floated just months ago in the strongest IPO in years, has had recurring accounting problems that critics say show a need for more financial sophistication on its board.
Groupon revised its fourth-quarter results last month, its first results posted as a public company, trimming revenue by $14.3 million. The company also said it found a material weakness in controls over its financial statements.
Analysis: Groupon accounting problems put spotlight on board
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Groupon Inc, the online coupon company that floated just months ago in the strongest IPO in years, has had recurring accounting problems that critics say show a need for more financial sophistication on its board.
Groupon revised its fourth-quarter results last month, its first results posted as a public company, trimming revenue by $14.3 million. The company also said it found a material weakness in controls over its financial statements.
PCAOB’s debate over auditor rotation moves to Congress
An ambitious reform agenda at the main U.S. auditor watchdog — already under fire from the accounting industry — has now drawn the ire of members of Congress.
At a hearing on Wednesday, members of a House Financial Services subcommittee took aim at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, saying some of the items on its agenda, including term limits for audit firms and making its disciplinary proceedings public, would amount to regulatory overreach.
U.S. investors urge ‘going concern’ warning reform
March 28 (Reuters) – Regulators need to crack down on
auditors who fail to warn investors and the public before
corporations fail, investors told the main watchdog for U.S.
auditors on Wednesday.
Most big companies bailed out by the government in the
2007-2009 financial crisis had clean bills of health from their
auditors and no auditors have been disciplined over this,
investors told the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board at
a meeting in Washington.
US Chamber challenges auditor watchdog on rotation
March 27 (Reuters) – The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the
nation’s largest lobbying group for corporations, is pressing
Congress to block term limits for corporate auditors, ratcheting
up pressure on regulators who are weighing such requirements.
In an effort to strengthen the independence of auditors that
scrutinize corporations’ financial books, the Public Company
Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is considering making
companies change, or rotate, auditors every few years.
Top watchdog, U.S. Chamber clash on auditor rotation
WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) – In the buttoned-down world
of corporate auditing, sharp words are rarely heard, but the
industry’s chief U.S. regulator on Thursday blasted the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce in public.
At a forum on whether corporations should be required by
regulation to switch auditors every few years, Public Company
Accounting Oversight Board Chairman James Doty said the chamber
should choose its words more carefully.
US audit watchdog: term limit debate likely to ’13
WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) – The U.S. watchdog for the
auditing industry said on Wednesday that a debate over possibly
forcing corporations to change auditors every few years would
stretch at least into 2013.
No potential rule proposal on term limits for auditors will
be ready this year, the Public Company Accounting Oversight
Board (PCAOB) said, as critics and supporters including some
ex-regulators descended on Washington this week to weigh in on
the issue.
Volcker backs contentious auditor rotation idea
WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) – Former Federal Reserve
Chairman Paul Volcker backed a controversial proposal to impose
term-limits for audit firms on Wednesday, saying it would serve
as “a powerful incentive to maintain professional discipline.”
“It does seem to me that regular audits should not become a
sort of long-term annuity for the accounting firm paid for by
the company being audited, rather than being responsive … to
the investing public,” Volcker said at a roundtable convened in
Washington by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
Insight: Big 4 auditors spend more than ever on U.S. lobbying
By David Ingram and Dena Aubin
(Reuters) – The world’s largest accounting and auditing firms, known as the Big Four, have been pumping more money than ever before into U.S. lobbying and political campaigns as they confront new challenges from their regulator and Congress.
Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers last year spent a combined $9.4 million on in-house and outside lobbyists, according to a Reuters analysis of congressional disclosure reports.
-
Follow Dena
