SEC chairman backs UK line on audit reform

At a joint press conference last week SEC chairman Christopher Cox pointedly praised proposals from the Financial Reporting Council aimed at creating more competition and choice in the UK.

‘The SEC is very impressed with the market participants group interim report, particularly its focus on contingency planning in the event of a large firm leaving the market,’ Cox said, while sharing a platform with the FRC’s Paul Boyle.

The comments are likely to lead to speculation that Cox is hinting that the SEC could be interested in its own review of audit competition. He also cooled speculation that the US companies would soon be able to adopt IFRS instead of US GAAP.

The SEC had announced that by 2009 it would scrap the requirement for foreign companies to restate IFRS accounts in US GAAP, but Cox said abandoning US GAAP entirely was not on the cards.

‘It is important for UK companies to consider IFRS, but it is not a choice they have at the moment. We need to strengthen the capacity of the profession in IFRS in the US,’ Cox said.

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