Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler urged the US audit board to consider strengthening auditor independence standards as regulators see CPA firms pay less attention to conflicts of interest.
Public Company Accounting Oversight Board “inspections continue to identify independence—and lack of professional skepticism—as a perennial problem area,” Gensler said at a Center for Audit Quality virtual discussion Wednesday.
- Paul Munter, the SEC’s acting chief accountant, has previously warned firms with “complex business arrangements” to follow ethics rules.
- The SEC also may update its own auditor independence standards, Gensler said.
- “I do encourage the firms to review and ...