PCAOB Publishes Final Standards 8-15 on Risk, Materiality; Staff Practice Alert 7 on Litigation, Contingencies

Earlier today (January 18), the PCAOB published final Auditing Standards No. 8-15 on the auditor's assessment of, and response to risk, and related amendments to existing standards.

These final standards were approved by the SEC on Dec. 23, 2010, following the SEC's Notice and Comment period, and approval thereafter by the Commission. This procedure, in effect a secondary level approval process after approval of auditing standards by the PCAOB board, was set forth in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The final standards published by the PCAOB on January 18 include:

AS 8 Audit Risk

AS 9 Audit Planning

AS 10 Supervision of the Audit Engagement

AS 11 Consideration of Materiality in Planning and Performing an Audit

AS 12 Identifying and Assessing Risks of Material Misstatement

AS 13 The Auditor's Responses to the Risks of Material Misstatement

AS 14 Evaluating Audit Results

AS 15 Audit Evidence

PCAOB Staff Audit Practice Alert 7 on Litigation

Separately, as highlighted by Broc Romanek in TheCorporateCounsel.net Blog today (Jan. 18), the PCAOB published on Dec. 20 PCAOB Staff Audit Practice Alert No. 7, "Auditor Considerations of Litigation and Other Contingencies Arising from Mortgage and Other Loan Activities." See also PCAOB's press release.

Romanek notes that the PCAOB release is in addition to a related SEC 'Dear CFO' letter released in the fall; see our previous posts on the SEC's Dear CFO Letter, and on the status of FASB's related project on contingency disclosures, including litigation.

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