Financial Accounting Blog

Saturday, March 20, 2004

Big Four Accounting Firms support the FASB. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) along with other "Big Four" accounting firms sent a joint letter to Congress that supported preserving the independence of the FASB in its ability to establish accounting standards.
The firms issued the letter in response to the bills proposed in Congress that reccomendded legislation for the accounting of stock options. in looking at a copy of the letter in its entirety, PwC and the other signatories reaffirmed thier support of the mandatory expensing of all employee stock options whose fair market value would be detemined in a manner suitable to the reporting company. The companiies assert that the independence of the FASB and Congress' history of not imposing its judgements on the FASB 's standards have been critical to the effective operation of capital markets. They maintain in thier letter that the FASB's standard-setting process include seeking the perspective of all participants in the capital market- individual investors, institutional investors, the SEC, etc... and that this process should continue without the interference of Congress.