Audit regulator says accounting firms still falling short, announced the headline of a recent Globe and Mail article. Here’s some of what it had say: Indeed, CPAB’s report is so discreet on such matters that it stops at referring coyly to “Canada’s four largest audit firms,” not even reminding us of the names. Not that…

As part of its activities, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) organizes a forum of enforcers from 38 different European jurisdictions, all of whom carry out monitoring and review programs similar to those carried out here by the Canadian Securities Administrators. ESMA recently published some extracts from its confidential database of enforcement decisions on…

The Ontario Securities Commission and Royal Bank of Canada recently reached a settlement under which the bank agreed to make a voluntary payment of $2,000,000 to the OSC. Arising out of the same conduct, the bank agreed to pay $2,000,000 to Québec’s Autorité des Marchés Financiers, and $8,000,000 to the United States SEC (although receiving…

For several years, David Letterman ran a segment called “Great Moments in Presidential Speeches,” in which stirring clips of, say, JFK declaring “Ich bin ein Berliner” and Bill Clinton’s ringing “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America” would be followed by the latest instance of George W. Bush mangling his words…

A recent tweet (or whatever they’re called now) seemed to sweep our whole profession into the modern technology-facilitated trash. It said: “What do the IFRS people know about running a bank? You don’t need such people to make financial statements – Chat GPT is there for such things…” Well, as I wrote here, ChatGPT itself…

As we covered here, the IASB recently called for stakeholder feedback to inform its review of the accounting standard for revenue from contracts with customers, IFRS 15. This is part of the regular post-implementation review process “to assess whether the effects of applying the new requirements on users of financial statements, preparers, auditors and regulators are…

Readers may not be aware that International Accounting Day (sometimes referred to, if at all, as International Accountant’s Day) takes place on November 10. Why that day? This is from anydayguide.com: This is how Nationaltoday.com celebrated the event: Among other things, the website had some examples of why we love accountants, such as… …and of…

This is from a recent speech by IASB Chair Andreas Barckow: That “apples with apples” line might easily trigger another edition of our periodic series, Great Cliches of IFRS. For instance, the following is from 2011: I don’t know if that last paragraph is entirely coherent, but the attempt is rather charming. And here’s one…

Among the many commenters on the ISSB’s recent consultation on agenda priorities was the World Nuclear Association. Here’s some of what they had to say: I’m not qualified to comment on the specific issue raised, although it strikes me that the dramatic numerical disparity cited (879 versus 28) is a bit less meaningful than the…

(See Peter Clark’s commentary on the following [evidently even more flawed than usual!] post) This is from the article No Comment: Language Barriers and the IASB’s Comment Letter Process, by Eduardo Flores, Brian Monsen, Emily Shafron and Christopher G. Yust: The authors carried out a study based on cataloging over 10,000 comment letters related to 88…