PCAOB Releases Proposed Registration Rules, Confirms Roundtable for March 31

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board today announced that it has released for public comment its proposed rules to create a registration system for public accounting firms and that it has rescheduled a roundtable meeting to discuss issues relating to the registration and oversight of foreign public accounting firms.

The Board’s release, which contains the proposed rules and application form, is available on the PCAOB’s Web site -- www.pcaobus.org. Interested persons are invited to submit written comments by March 31, 2003. Comments may be submitted by email, electronically through the Board’s Web site, or by regular mail addressed to the Office of the Secretary, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, 1666 K St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006-2803.

As previously announced, the Board will host a roundtable meeting to solicit views on whether the registration requirements should be modified for foreign public accounting firms and how the Board should discharge its oversight responsibilities with respect to registered foreign public accounting firms. In order to accommodate participation by Commissioners of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the roundtable meeting, which had been planned for March 21, has been rescheduled to March 31 from 2 to 5 p.m. in the William O. Douglas Room of the SEC, 450 5th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. Representatives of foreign regulators, foreign accounting firms, and investor groups are expected to participate. The roundtable meeting will be webcast and open to the public. More information about the roundtable will be available before March 31.

The archived webcast of the roundtable can be found here.