October 18, 2007
PCAOB Proposes Internal Controls Staff Guidance for Smaller Companies
Yesterday, the PCAOB proposed Staff guidance – in the form of these “preliminary staff views” – on applying Auditing Standard No. 5 to audits of smaller, less complex companies. Here is the related press release. When the PCAOB adopted AS #5 in May, the Board committed to provide additional guidance on applying the standard to audits of smaller public companies.
The New RiskMetrics Group Structure
For me, it’s gonna take a while to get used to saying “RiskMetrics” instead of “ISS” in the wake of the company’s reorganization. In this podcast, Cheryl Gustitus, Head of Global Communications at RiskMetrics, describes how the recently announced reorganization at RiskMetrics Group impacts ISS, including:
– Where does ISS fit into the reorganization of RiskMetrics?
– How is the ISS division of RiskMetrics now organized?
– Will the policy-setting process of ISS change at all?
– How does that policy-setting process work?
Latest Post-Season Proxy Season Report
Recently, RiskMetrics issued its latest “Post-Proxy Season Report.” Among other notables, this report reveals that as of mid-September:
– 656 shareholder proposals had been voted upon this year, up from 581 at the same time last year.
– 107 shareholder proposals have earned a majority of votes cast, down from 116 proposals last year (two years ago, just 85 proposals received majority support).
– Corp Fin had issued 155 no-action responses allowing the exclusion of a shareholder proposal, up from 129.
– Broc Romanek