Deloitte's newly-released report on voluntary audit committee disclosures: "Audit committee disclosure in proxy statements - 2017 trends" reveals these and numerous other noteworthy voluntary disclosure practices based on an analysis of S&P 100 company 2017 proxy statements filed as of June 15, 2017:
- Over 60% of the companies explicitly disclosed that the audit committee evaluates the independent auditor - up 2% from 2016. Factors considered in those evaluations reportedly included the auditor’s qualifications, performance, independence, and tenure.
- More than 70% disclosed their audit firm's tenure, and a number of companies elaborated on this topic - highlighting benefits of a long auditor relationship, with the most commonly-cited benefits being:
- Higher audit quality due to the independent auditor’s deep understanding of the company’s business, accounting policies and practices, and ICFR
- Efficient fee structures due to the independent auditor’s familiarity with the company and industry expertise
- Avoidance of the significant costs and disruptions - including management time and distractions - that would be associated with bringing on a new independent auditor
- A number of these companies also discussed their robust safeguards for auditor independence, including:
- A strong regulatory framework for auditor independence, including limitations on non-audit services and mandatory audit partner rotation requirements
- Audit committee oversight of the auditor that includes regular communication on and evaluation of the quality of the audit and auditor independence
- The independent auditor’s own internal independence process and compliance reviews
- 63% provided general disclosures around the audit committee’s role in reviewing and approving the audit engagement fees, but just 20% disclosed that the audit committee is responsible for negotiating fees.
- 32% noted that the audit committee reviews the earnings/annual report press releases with management and the independent auditor prior to their release - up from 20% in 2015.
- 37% disclosed the audit committee’s role in overseeing cybersecurity risk - up from 27% in 2016.
Although disclosures decreased in certain areas compared to 2016, on an overall net basis, increases in disclosure reportedly outpaced decreases by 12%. A table on page 6 of the report details results by year since 2015, and legally-required (as opposed to voluntary) disclosures are summarized in the Appendix.
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See also last week's report on EY's Fortune 100 audit committee disclosure analysis, Deloitte's 2016 analysis (which we reported on here), and additional resources on our Audit Committees topical page.
This information was first reported in yesterday's weekly Society Alert.
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