Chairman Logothetis Delivers Remarks at FEI’s Corporate Financial Reporting Insights Conference

Remarks as prepared for delivery

Good afternoon. Thank you, David [Fabricant], for the introduction, and for your service on the PCAOB’s Standards and Emerging Issues Advisory Group (SEIAG).

We had an incredible and robust fall meeting a few weeks ago. Thank you, as always, for participating and for bringing the perspectives of financial executives to our discussions. That kind of engagement helps ensure we hear directly from the people who experience the financial reporting system in practice.

Before we begin, please know that my remarks today reflect my individual views as Chairman and do not necessarily reflect the views of the full Board, my fellow Board Members, or the PCAOB’s dedicated staff. 

I want to start with my appreciation for the theme of this conference: “Embrace the Change. Architect the Future.” And I particularly appreciate the theme you chose for today’s conversations: “A New Day for the Profession.”

As Chairman Atkins noted in his remarks, both capture where we are right now. Our capital markets are changing quickly, and so is the accounting and auditing profession.

When Congress created the PCAOB in 2002, total U.S. market capitalization was $11 trillion.

Today, it’s more than $75 trillion.  

Technology is also reshaping how financial information is prepared and audited. Super Intelligence is creating capabilities that would have been difficult to imagine even a few years ago. Business models are evolving. And expectations for everyone involved in financial reporting continue to rise.

The question is not whether change is coming. It is already here. The question is what we do with it.

For those of you who serve as CFOs, chief accounting officers, and controllers, that is not an abstract question. You are on the front lines of financial reporting. You make difficult judgments. You oversee systems and controls. You work closely with your auditors. You are introducing new technologies into your organizations. And ultimately, you help ensure that investors receive reliable, high-quality financial information.

At the PCAOB, we are asking many of those same questions about ourselves. 

When I was appointed Chairman earlier this year, Chairman Atkins spoke about ushering in a “new day” at the PCAOB, centered on sensible and efficient oversight and a renewed focus on our core statutory mission.

He also emphasized the importance of a strong strategic plan, fiscal discipline, and ensuring that regulation delivers benefits to investors without imposing unnecessary burdens. All of these priorities would lead to regulatory clarity and modernization that would keep up with the brisk rate of change we are experiencing.

I can assure you Chairman Atkins and I are completely aligned on these priorities and are committed to seeing them come to fruition.

All that to say, a new day does not require a new mission. It requires us to transform how we work to better carry out an enduring one. 

For the PCAOB, that mission remains protecting investors and furthering the public interest in the preparation of informative, accurate, and independent audit reports. We have an opportunity and a responsibility, to change how we execute that mission in an environment that looks very different from the one in which the PCAOB was created nearly 25 years ago.

That is the thinking behind our work on the PCAOB’s 2026-2030 Strategic Plan, which you may have seen the announcement earlier this morning—the Board will hold an open meeting next week to vote on what will become the final plan. 

Advance

Our strategic direction can be thought of through three ideas: Advance. Clarify. Transform or “A-C-T”.

First, advance audit quality and investor protection.

That starts with focusing our oversight where it can make the greatest difference. In standard setting, we are looking at how to establish a more structured, high-quality approach that is responsive to risk.

We are thinking about appropriate alignment with other standard setters where it makes sense.

In inspections, we are looking at how to modernize our approach as firms implement QC 1000, including a greater focus on firms’ systems of quality control while preserving the engagement reviews required by statute. And in enforcement, the strategic direction has emphasized focusing resources on conduct that presents meaningful risks to investors. 

The common thread there is focus. A regulator should know what problem it is trying to solve, why that problem matters, and whether its approach is producing the intended result.

That is particularly important when you consider your perspective as financial executives.

You understand that resources are finite. You make decisions every day about where risk is greatest and where investments will have the greatest impact.

Regulators should apply this same discipline to their decisions, as well, and that is what we are doing at the PCAOB.

Clarify

The second principle is clarify.

I believe effective oversight depends on people understanding what is expected of them and understanding the reasoning behind regulatory decisions. That applies to our standards, inspections, enforcement, and outreach.

Our strategic planning work emphasized listening early, engaging often, and communicating clearly. It also recognizes that transparency and predictability support effective oversight.

That matters to you. The companies you lead interact with auditors every day. Decisions we make about auditing standards, inspection priorities, quality control, or emerging technology can ultimately affect those interactions.

You should have an opportunity to tell us what you are seeing.

In fact, FEI has already done that. FEI’s Committee on Corporate Reporting submitted feedback during our most recent strategic plan comment period. Thank you. That is exactly the kind of engagement we want.

Earlier this year, we asked stakeholders what our strategic priorities should be.

This marked the first time since the PCAOB was created that the organization asked stakeholders for their input before developing a strategic plan. It’s hard to believe that never took place previously, but as I said, it’s a new day at the PCAOB.

The feedback we received touched on risk-based oversight, quality control informed inspections, technology and data capabilities, stakeholder engagement, transparency, investor protection, international coordination, and enforcement focus.

That is what meaningful engagement should look like. There should be a feedback loop, and you should be able to understand how we considered what we heard and how that thinking informed our direction.

Transform

And that brings me to the third principle: transform how oversight is delivered.

This may be where your conference theme resonates most strongly with me. If the profession is embracing change, regulators cannot be complacent. Technology, including super intelligence, and data are changing financial reporting and auditing.

The PCAOB’s strategic planning work specifically recognizes technology and data as part of modernizing oversight, including data-driven, risk-based oversight and strengthening our own technology, including super intelligence, and data capabilities.

I view that as essential.

I believe we cannot effectively oversee a technology-enabled profession using yesterday’s capabilities. But I also believe that technology has to remain connected to human judgment and accountability.

Chairman Atkins’ staff makes important points in discussing Super Intelligence and financial reporting: regardless of what technologies companies use, management remains responsible for the financial statements and needs to understand the associated risks.

That principle applies more broadly.

Super Intelligence can help companies and auditors analyze enormous amounts of information. It may help identify patterns, anomalies, or risks. It may automate work that once consumed significant amounts of professional time.

Those are real opportunities.

But Super Intelligence does not eliminate responsibility. It does not eliminate professional skepticism. And it does not eliminate the need for people who understand when technology is giving them a useful answer and when they need to dig deeper.

Innovation and accountability have to advance together.

Architecting the future

So let me come back to your theme: “Embrace the Change. Architect the Future.”

I think the second half may actually be the more important challenge.

Embracing change is about recognizing what is happening around us. Architecting the future requires deciding what we are going to do about it.

For the PCAOB, that means asking whether our standards are keeping pace with the profession.

It means asking whether our inspections are giving us the right insights into audit quality and whether the information we provide is useful to the people who rely on it.

It means focusing enforcement on conduct that meaningfully threatens investors.

It means investing in technology, data, and people so our capabilities keep pace with those of the profession we oversee.

And it means listening to the people who experience the effects of our oversight firsthand.

Those concepts are reflected throughout our strategic planning work. The plan is intended to provide a roadmap for aligning the PCAOB’s activities with its mission, goals, and objectives. For all the discussion about change, however, there is something I do not believe should change: trust.

I spent 40 years in the auditing profession before coming to the PCAOB. I have also had the opportunity to sit on the other side of the table as an audit committee chair.

Those experiences reinforced something pretty fundamental for me: our financial reporting system works best when everyone understands the role they play, takes that responsibility seriously, and never loses sight of the investors ultimately relying on the system.

I suspect that resonates with many of you. As CFOs and controllers, you are on the front lines of financial reporting.

Auditors have a responsibility. Audit committees have a responsibility. And standard setters and regulators have a responsibility.

We all have different roles, but ultimately, we are working toward the same goal: a financial reporting system that investors can trust.

That is how I approach the PCAOB’s role. When I was sworn in as Chairman, I said that independent oversight of auditors is a critical pillar of the investor confidence that powers our capital markets.

I believe deeply in that mission.

And as we enter this new day for the profession, our challenge is not to choose between innovation and investor protection, or between modernization and rigor. It is to use change as an opportunity to strengthen all of them.

That is the future we are working to build at the PCAOB.

And because so much of the financial reporting system begins with the work that you do, I look forward to continuing to hear from FEI and from all of you.

Thank you.