SEC Investor Panel Examines Plea to Better Assess Audit Quality

A long-stagnant proposal to help investors gauge audit quality could get renewed life as a fresh set of leaders takes the helm of the U.S. audit regulator.

Members of an SEC investor advisory panel on Thursday explored a longstanding demand that audit firms report what are known as quality indicators, benchmarks that they can use to hold auditors accountable for their work.

• Investors have urged the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to include such a requirement as it updates its quality controls standards—rules that govern how firms ensure effective, compliant work. “We want more information to be able to ...