SEC names members of financial reporting committee

SEC names members of financial reporting committee

SEC appoints senior US figures to committee that will review complexities of US reporting

The US regulator has announced the names of the members who will sit on a
special committee tasked with reviewing financial reporting.

The Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting was formed last
month in an effort to try to reduce the complexity of reporting.

Over-regulation has been cited by major business players as the reason for
the unpopularity of US markets. According to the SEC, companies have expressed
concerns with the difficulty of ensuring compliance with US GAAP and SEC
reporting rules.

During 2006, almost 10% of US public companies had to restate prior
financial reports due to the discovery of errors in the the reports.
Restatements are costly to companies, and undermine the confidence of investors
in the financial reporting system.

The committee will look into these issues, using the expertise of senior
figures in the profession in the US, including the likes of Robert C. Pozen, who
is to chair the group, and is currently MFS Investment Management, and a former
associate general counsel for the SEC.

The chief executive officer of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, New York James H.
Quigley, will also join the group.

Cox said he is pleased that the exceptionally distinguished group will advise
the Commission on how their increasingly complex financial reporting system can
be tamed and made more useful for everyone who relies on it.

‘The committee members each represent key constituencies in our capital
markets,’ said Cox. ‘I know we can count on them to thoroughly study these
issues and recommend improvements that will keep America’s financial reporting
system as the gold standard for the world.’

Under their guidance, the group will explore ways to redesign the financial
reporting system to take advantage of interactive data and the XBRL computer
language for financial reporting.

The SEC believes these new technologies can help address accounting compl
exity by making financial information more useful to investors and others who
use it.

Cox also announced five obervers to the group, scheduled to hold its first
meeting on Thursday at the SEC headquarters in Washington.

For a full list of the appointments, click
here.

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