SEC Launches ‘Financial Reporting Series’ On Risks In Financial Reporting System
June 13, 2011
FEI Summary

In remarks at USC's "30th Annual SEC and Financial Reporting Institute," SEC Chief Accountant Jim Kroeker announced that the SEC will launch a series of roundtables "to facilitate a balanced discussion of existing pressures or emerging issues in financial reporting." The roundtables, entitled the "Financial Reporting Series," are expected to be held three times per year. They will be open to the public and webcast.

Objective: Early Identification of Risks
The objective of the Financial Reporting Series, said Kroeker, is to "assist us in our early identification of risks related to, as well as areas for potential improvements in, the reliability and usefulness of financial reporting to investors."

The first such roundtable, Kroeker said, is "expect[ed] ...to be held later this year," and will focus on "a topic such as the role of uncertainty in financial reporting and whether [the] right level of information about uncertainty is being provided."

It appears the Financial Reporting Series, focused on the early identification of risks to the financial reporting system, dovetails neatly into the role of the newest Deputy Chief Accountant to join the OCA team - Mike Starr.

As noted in the SEC's press release,  which was issued last fall when Starr, former chief operating officer of Grant Thornton International, was hired in the newly created position of deputy chief accountant for Policy Support and Market Monitoring: "In this role, Mr. Starr will serve as the chief accountant's liaison on projects and activities to improve the quality of accounting and auditing policy decisions and to identify and address potential financial reporting weaknesses and risks. Mr. Starr also will advise the chief accountant and the Office on highly complex topics."

Other Topics

Other topics covered by the chief accountant in his speech at USC included convergence, private company standard-setting, auditor regulation and more.

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Prepared June 13, 2011 by Edith Orenstein, director, accounting policy analysis and communications, Financial Executives International. This summary does not reflect FEI opinion unless specifically noted above.