Chairman Logothetis Delivers Remarks at Standards and Emerging Issues Advisory Group Meeting

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

My goal in joining the PCAOB is simple: to help ensure the organization delivers the accountability and audit quality every participant in the financial statement ecosystem deserves.  

So, the collective work ahead of us reflects a simple reality: the audit environment is changing rapidly, and our oversight must keep pace with the risks, technologies, and expectations shaping today’s capital markets.  

That is where you come in. The SEIAG plays an important and unique role, as your perspectives—rooted in practice, academia, and advocacy—are essential to ensuring that our oversight, including our standards, research, and rulemaking agendas, remain both rigorous and fit for purpose. You help us to look around corners and anticipate emerging risks before they fully materialize. This helps us identify where our oversight may need to adapt, including areas where the profession and capital markets could benefit from new or enhanced standards and guidance. Importantly, your insights help us to ensure that our standards and guidance are grounded in the realities of the profession and the needs of investors. 

My first major initiative as PCAOB Chairman was to commence the PCAOB’s strategic planning process with an open comment period for the PCAOB’s strategic priorities—the first time the Board has done something like this. This comment period is open through next Friday, May 15th, and we want to hear from you on broader strategic priorities, if you have not done so already.  

The questions we posed are a starting point, not a boundary. Your insights as experts in your own right are essential to helping shape the PCAOB’s strategic priorities—and beyond.  

Additionally, you may have seen that yesterday the PCAOB updated its standard-setting, research, and rulemaking projects on our website. The changes outline certain staff activities that are being performed in the interim period while we solicit input on our strategic priorities.  

With that, I am pleased to share another milestone: when we publish our strategic goals and priorities—anticipated in June—we will also release our first standard-setting agenda consultation. This consultation seeks input on more than just priorities for standard-setting projects. It will seek recommendations to improve the overall standard-setting process, including how to effectively collaborate with and engage international standard-setters. Your feedback is important and will help us prioritize our work. I encourage you to please be candid about what you are seeing and what requires our attention. 

As we undertake this broader strategic planning effort, we are also taking steps to ensure the PCAOB’s inspection program is fit for the next 25 years. Unquestionably, our inspections program has contributed to meaningful improvements in audit quality since the PCAOB was created more than two decades ago. However, I believe it is time to modernize the program by grounding it in QC 1000 and leveraging emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. 

To help us navigate the complexities of redesigning our inspections program, I am excited to announce that the PCAOB will soon seek experts from across the financial reporting ecosystem to form an inspections task force. Ideal candidates will have a desire to protect investors and have deep knowledge of QC 1000, inspection regimes, and emerging technologies. Please look for a solicitation in the coming weeks, and I encourage everyone who is interested to apply. 

Before I close, I want to reiterate something I said last week to our Investor Advisory Group (IAG) members and acknowledge feedback we have received from all of our advisory group members, who have felt that their recommendations have not always been considered or incorporated into the PCAOB’s activities.  

This is something I am committed to fixing—for all of our advisory groups. 

The PCAOB is adopting a more transparent and structured approach to considering your feedback. At the end of today’s session, we will recap the recommendations received from you, and in future meetings, we will update you on how your input has informed our thinking, actions, and priorities.  

Your perspectives are essential to our mission. It is a new day at the PCAOB, and we aim to ensure your contributions are thoughtfully considered as we move forward.  

I know we have a lot to cover today, so I will end with this: I am grateful for your time, your expertise, and your willingness to help advance our shared goals of strengthening audit quality and protecting investors who rely on audited financial information.  

Thank you again for being here today. I look forward to our thoughtful and forward-looking conversations.