PUBLIC COMPANY ACCOUNTING OVERSIGHT BOARD (PCAOB)

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (also known as the PCAOB) is a private-sector, nonprofit corporation created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to oversee accounting professionals who provide independent audit reports for publicly traded companies. The PCAOB’s responsibilities include:

registering public accounting firms;
establishing audit, quality control, ethics, independence, and other standards relating to audits of public company audits;
conducting inspections, investigations, and disciplinary proceedings of registered accounting firms; and
enforcing compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

When Congress created the PCAOB, it gave the SEC the authority to oversee the PCAOB’s operations, to appoint or remove members, to approve the PCAOB’s budget and rules, and to entertain appeals of PCAOB inspection reports and disciplinary actions. You can find SEC orders and other releases concerning the PCAOB here.

For more information about the PCAOB, please visit the PCAOB’s website. There you will find links to the PCAOB rules and rulemaking initiatives, information about auditing standards, releases concerning enforcement, reports of inspections, and much more.

To file a complaint with the PCAOB, pass along a tip, or provide information that may be relevant to a PCAOB inspection, please visit the PCAOB’s Tip and Referral Center.