Exchange Commission (exchange + commission)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting


Selected Abstracts


Climate for Scandal: Corporate Environments that Contribute to Accounting Fraud

FINANCIAL REVIEW, Issue 1 2007
Claire E. Crutchley
G34; G38; K22 Abstract We examine the governance characteristics, earnings quality, growth rates, dividend policy, and compensation structure of 97 firms recently under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for accounting fraud. Our results show that the corporate environment most likely to lead to an accounting scandal manifests significant growth and accounting practices that are already pushing the envelope of earnings smoothing. Firms operating in this environment seem more likely to tip over the edge into fraud if there are fewer outsiders on the audit committee and outside directors appear overcommitted. [source]


Spreads, Depths, and Quote Clustering on the NYSE and Nasdaq: Evidence after the 1997 Securities and Exchange Commission Rule Changes

FINANCIAL REVIEW, Issue 4 2002
Kee H. Chung
This paper examines liquidity and quote clustering on the NYSE and Nasdaq using data after the two market reforms,the 1997 order,handling rule and minimum tick size changes. We find that Nasdaq,listed stocks exhibit wider spreads and smaller depths than NYSE,listed stocks and stocks with higher proportions of even,eighth and even,sixteenth quotes have wider quoted, effective, and realized spreads on both the NYSE and Nasdaq. This result differs from the findings by Bessembinder (1999, p. 404) that "trade execution costs on Nasdaq in late 1997 are no longer significantly explained by a tendency for liquidity providers to avoid odd,eighth quotations," and "odd,sixteenth avoidance has little relevance for explaining post,reform Nasdaq trading costs." [source]


Career success after stigmatizing organizational events

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2007
Monika Hamori
This article examines the effect of six types of stigmatizing organizational events on employees' career moves to another employer: criticism of the organization in the media; resignation of key individuals from the organization; downsizing; a drop in net income; lawsuits launched by the Securities and Exchange Commission, competitors, or customers; and lawsuits launched by employees. Stigmatizing events that signal the decline of corporate performance are the most devastating for professional career success. Outsiders, on the other hand, are less sensitive to an organization's involvement in lawsuits launched by public authorities or employees. Stigmatizing events affect the career success of every professional in the organization, irrespective of his or her hierarchical level. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


A genetic algorithm approach to detecting temporal patterns indicative of financial statement fraud

INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS IN ACCOUNTING, FINANCE & MANAGEMENT, Issue 1-2 2007
Bethany Hoogs
This study presents a genetic algorithm approach to detecting financial statement fraud. The study uses a sample comprising a target class of 51 companies accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of improperly recognizing revenue and a peer class of 339 companies matched on industry and size (revenue). Variables include 76 comparative metrics, based on specific financial metrics and ratios that capture company performance in the context of historical and industry performance, and nine company characteristics. Time-based patterns detected by the genetic algorithm accurately classify 63% of the target class companies and 95% of the peer class companies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Auditor Independence: A Comparative Descriptive Study of the UK, France and Italy

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AUDITING, Issue 2 2002
Joanna E. Stevenson
The independence of the external auditor has long been a subject of great debate, particularly by UK and US interested parties. With the growth and globalisation of the large multi-disciplinary firms, it has again been pushed to the fore: new ethical guidance issued by international bodies such as La Fédération des Experts- Comptables Européens (FEE) and The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the activities of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Independence Standards Board in the US have encouraged a wider consideration of the issue. In Europe, the European Commission has issued a Consultative Paper containing fundamental principles for adoption into Member States' own regulation on statutory auditor independence. Increasing pressure for the removal of obstacles to a single European audit market have resulted in safeguards of auditor independence in some countries being described as undesirable barriers. This paper considers the issue of statutory auditor independence across three EU Member States: the UK, France and Italy, by comparing the ethical guides and the legal and professional regulations in place, highlighting and discussing areas of divergence, and contrasting them with the EC's Consultative Paper. It takes into account factors such as culture and the historical development of auditing in order to explore the differences found. The paper demonstrates that positions taken in France and Italy on the issue of auditor independence differ markedly from that taken by the UK profession. Of the three countries reviewed, the UK viewpoint has most obviously influenced the drafting of the EC Paper. The implications of these variances for EU harmonisation are discussed, and the paper concludes that there is a clear need for empirical study of this important issue in Europe to better understand the reasons for differing perceptions and attitudes, and the repercussions of these differences on the process of European audit harmonisation. [source]


The Usefulness of Measures of Consistency of Discretionary Components of Accruals in the Detection of Earnings Management

JOURNAL OF BUSINESS FINANCE & ACCOUNTING, Issue 9-10 2009
Salma S. IbrahimArticle first published online: 26 OCT 200
Abstract:, Prior research has shown the prevalence of measurement error in models used to estimate aggregate discretionary accruals. In these models, the incremental information content of the various components of accruals is ignored. Limited prior research and data gathered from firms under Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) litigation indicate that managers use either one or more than one component of accruals simultaneously, in a consistent way to manipulate bottom-line earnings in a given direction. I propose two measures that capture the consistency between the discretionary components of accruals and test their significance in earnings management (EM) detection in firms that have artificially added accrual manipulation and firms that were targeted by the SEC for accrual manipulation. There is evidence that this information is incrementally useful in detecting EM. This finding paves the way for improvements in the discretionary accruals measure by including consistency information from the components of aggregate accruals. [source]


Current issues challenging the profession

JOURNAL OF CORPORATE ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 4 2010
Jack T. Ciesielski
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants held its annual Current Securities and Exchange Commission and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Conference on December 7,9, 2009. As auditors deal with various client accounting issues, and serve as gatekeepers in the whole financial reporting process, the topics presented at the conference serve as reminders for smart auditors,who incorporate them into their audit plans. The authors provide an overview of the issues and challenges discussed at the conference. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


Navigating with the IFRS convergence roadmap

JOURNAL OF CORPORATE ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 6 2009
Kang Cheng
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been moving toward letting U.S. firms prepare financial statements using International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs), "converging" U.S. and international reporting standards. Even firms not otherwise involved in international trade may have to follow IFRSs. The author takes a close look at the SEC's proposed convergence road map, discusses the possible effects of IFRS convergence, pinpoints issues and concerns, and examines strategies to handle the changes ahead. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


Compliance with the Disclosure Requirements of Germany's New Market: IAS Versus US GAAP

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT & ACCOUNTING, Issue 1 2003
Martin Glaum
This research examines compliance with both International Accounting Standards (IAS) and United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) for companies listed on Germany's New Market. Based on a sample of 100 firms that apply IAS and 100 that apply US GAAP, we investigate the extent to which companies comply with IAS and US GAAP disclosure requirements in their year,2000 financial statements. Compliance levels range from 100% to 41.6%, with an average of 83.7%. The average compliance level is significantly lower for companies that apply IAS as compared to companies applying US GAAP. This study provides the first systematic evidence regarding the enforcement of US GAAP outside the US, and accordingly not subject to Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) review. The results unveil a considerable extent of non,compliance. The overall level of compliance with IAS and US GAAP disclosures is positively related to firms being audited by Big 5 auditing firms and to cross,listings on US exchanges. Compliance is also associated with references to the use of International Standards of Auditing (ISA) or US GAAS in the audit opinion. The findings add to the growing concerns regarding the lack of effective supervision in the German capital market. [source]


"You Can Enter but You Cannot Leave,": U.S. Securities Markets and Foreign Firms

THE JOURNAL OF FINANCE, Issue 5 2008
ANDRÁS MAROSI
ABSTRACT Although a number of prior papers have argued the benefits to foreign firms of cross-listing their shares in the U.S., the number of foreign firms exiting U.S. capital markets has been increasing. This has occurred despite the difficulties foreign firms face in deregistering from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This paper examines the reasons underlying this trend. One of our main findings is that the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has reduced the net benefits of a U.S. listing and registration, particularly for smaller foreign firms with lower trading volume and stronger insider control. [source]


Toward a National Market System for U.S. Exchange,listed Equity Options

THE JOURNAL OF FINANCE, Issue 2 2004
Robert Battalio
ABSTRACT In its response to the 1975 Congressional mandate to implement a national market system for financial securities, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initially exempted the option market. Recent dramatic changes in the structure of the option market prompted the SEC to revisit this issue. We examine a sample of actively traded, multiply listed equity options to ask whether this market's characteristics appear consistent with the goals of producing economically efficient transactions and facilitating "best execution." We find marked changes between June 2000, when quotes are often ignored, and January 2002, when the market more closely resembles a national market. [source]


The Ramsay Report and the Regulation of Auditor Independence in Australia

AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 27 2002
Colleen Hayes
This paper provides an overview of key recommendations contained in the Ramsay Report (2001), "Independence of Australian Company Auditors", vis-à-vis current Australian requirements and the overseas developments on which they are based. Specific reference is made to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission "Rules on Audit Independence", released in November 2000, and the proposals contained in the International Federation of Accountants Ethics Committee's re-exposure draft, "Independence,Proposed Changes to the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants", released in April 2001. [source]


Independence in Appearance and in Fact: An Experimental Investigation,

CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 1 2003
Nicholas Dopuch
Abstract In this study, we use experimental markets to assess the effect of the Security and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) new independence rule on investors' perceptions of independence, investors' payoff distributions, and market prices. The new rule requires client firms to disclose in their annual proxy statements the amount of nonaudit fees paid to their auditors. The new disclosure is intended to inform investors of auditors' incentives to compromise their independence. Our experimental design is a 2 3 between-subjects design, where we control the presence (unbiased reports) or absence of auditor independence in fact (biased reports). While independence in fact was not immediately observable to investors, we controlled for independence in appearance by varying the public disclosure of the extent of nonaudit services provided by the auditor to the client. In one market setting, investors were not given any information about whether the auditor provided such nonaudit services; in a second setting, investors were explicitly informed that the auditor did not provide any non-audit services; and in a third setting, investors were told that the auditor provided nonaudit services that could be perceived to have an adverse effect on independence in fact. We found that disclosures of nonaudit services reduced the accuracy of investors' beliefs of auditors' independence in fact when independence in appearance was inconsistent with independence in fact. This then caused prices of assets to deviate more from their economic predictions (lower market efficiency) in the inconsistent settings relative to the no-disclosure and consistent settings. Thus, disclosures of fees for nonaudit services could reduce the efficiency of capital markets if such disclosures result in investors forming inaccurate beliefs of auditor independence in fact - that is, auditors appear independent but they are not independent in fact, or vice versa. The latter is the maintained position of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), which argued against the new rule. Further research is needed to assess the degree of correspondence between independence in fact and independence in appearance. [source]