TheCorporateCounsel.net

Yesterday, the SEC announced that starting this Monday, May 5th, its Section 16 Edgar site goes live! This means that on Monday, you will only be able to file via paper or the SEC’s site (which still has some problems) – or a third party service that complies with the SEC’s new specifications. The Romeo & Dye Section 16 Filer does comply with the new specs – so we urge you to try it (its free through end of September for anyone – and then only $195 thru end of 2004 for Section16.net subscribers) – download it at http://www.section16.net/Filer/index.htm.

On our fantastic “Regulation G Unplugged” webcast yesterday, it was mentioned that it was uncertain whether the SEC staff will issue any FAQs on Regulation G anytime soon – as it appears that there is disagreement among SEC staff members about what guidance should be provided. It was pointed out that various staff members might be providing conflicting guidance already. An audio archive of the webcast is available at http://www.greatgovernance.com/members/AudioCenter.html (a transcript will be posted next week).

In an ironic twist regarding the lack of transparency of financial disclosures, the AICPA – which has copyrighted its auditing standards over the years (ie. copyrighted part of GAAP) – has been is a spat with the PCAOB over the Board’s potential use of the AICPA standards. Because the AICPA makes so much money selling their standards, they don’t want them to be freely available. In other words, there has been limited transparency of what the auditing standards have been – and the PCAOB wants to change that. See the related Washington Post article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62485-2003Apr30.html.

This lack of transparency is one reason why we will soon be launching AccountingDisclosure.com – this site will provide “easy to understand and find” accounting guidance for lawyers.