PCAOB Posts Conversations with Audit Committee Chairs: What We Heard & FAQs

Washington, DC, Dec. 18, 2019

The PCAOB is committed to our strategic goal of enhancing transparency and accessibility through proactive stakeholder engagement. Over the past year, we have engaged more directly and more often with public company audit committees and had conversations with the audit committee chairs of almost all of the U.S. issuers whose audits we inspected. By contrast, historically, we have reached out to a small percentage of audit committee chairs during our inspections process. Continuous dialogue with audit committees on areas of mutual importance helps us to advance our mission and may assist audit committees in fulfilling their duties.

Today, in an effort to provide transparency into that process and as part of the reporting out of what we heard, PCAOB staff released a new resource for audit committees, Conversations with Audit Committee Chairs: What We Heard & FAQs.  Please contact the PCAOB's Stakeholder Liaison, Erin Dwyer, if you have any feedback on this resource or if you’d like to engage further with us. 

NOTE: This document was prepared by PCAOB staff to help inform audit committees in their interactions with their auditor. The statements contained in the document do not establish rules of the Board, do not constitute determinations of the Board, and have not been approved by the Board. The PCAOB does not set standards for or provide authoritative guidance to audit committee conduct.

***** 

About the PCAOB

The PCAOB is a nonprofit corporation established by Congress to oversee the audits of public companies in order to protect investors and further the public interest in the preparation of informative, accurate, and independent audit reports. The PCAOB also oversees the audits of brokers and dealers, including compliance reports filed pursuant to federal securities laws.