CAQ Symposium 2020

August 3 – 4, 2020
Virtual Event
Hosted by Deloitte & Touche LLP

CAQ Symposium 2020, held over two afternoons in early August, continued the tradition of bringing together leading academic scholars, regulators, and top practitioners from the CAQ’s Governing Board Member firms. Because of COVID-19, the Symposium went “virtual” this year, which allowed the CAQ to make the programming available to a wider group of attendees on the first day.

On the first afternoon, there was a panel discussion that addressed key issues with multinational group audits, including the evolution of standard setting, supervision and review of component auditors, component oversight in the current environment, and regulatory and access challenges. Attendees were also provided a preview of an independent research project on ICFR management review controls that was commissioned jointly by the CAQ and Financial Executives International. This presentation provided an overview of the study methodology, the key findings, and the proposed recommendations based on interviews with ICFR control owners, operators, and, separately, the companies’ auditors.

The topic of firms’ system of quality control was covered on the second afternoon. Panelists discussed what information is currently available from the firms on audit quality, the objectives of their internal processes for managing the quality of their audits, and the approach that the IAASB and the PCAOB are taking with respect to standard setting in this area. The panel also discussed monitoring and remediation issues, including root cause analysis of audit deficiencies.

Later that afternoon, academics, regulators, and senior practice leaders explored these topics further in smaller breakout sessions.

Click here for the CAQ Symposium panelists’ bios.

Click here to view a summary of the key points derived from these small group discussions.

Panel I:  Multinational Group Audits

Moderator:  Jorge Milo, PwC

Panelists:
Phillip Austin, BDO
Matt Doyle, KPMG LLP
Dora Burzenski, Deloitte & Touche LLP
Mike Santay, Grant Thornton LLP

Panel II: Learnings from a Study of ICFR MRCs

Panelists:
Mark Beasley, North Carolina State University
John Fogarty, John A. Fogarty LLC
Doug Prawitt, Brigham Young University

Panel III: Firms’ System of Quality Control

Moderator: Lara Abrash, Deloitte & Touche LLP

Panelists:
Brian Croteau, PwC
Jim Dolinar, Crowe LLP
Richard Rodgers, EY
Megan Zietsman, PCAOB