Gavin Hinks

The watchdogs over there can hardly rustle their papers without accountants over here having to rethink the way they do business.

The fact that the UK needs to persuade the SEC to buy into limited liability contracts places regulators across the pond in an extremely powerful position over the accountability of financial reporting here.

That Financial Reporting Council chief executive Paul Boyle has to open talks with the SEC is testament to the enormous influence of its chairman Christopher Cox.

Recently I read that the Fed, because of the power of US markets, was actually setting interest rates for China. It’s surely the case that Cox isn’t just running US market regulation, he has a hefty role in setting ours.

Having said that I have a suspicion that Cox will give Boyle the nod. I have no hot line to Cox (sadly he doesn’t do many interviews) but here’s why.

For one thing, it’s a good bet he’ll accept that the deals are between investors and auditors ­ not auditors and company directors ­ and underlining the interests of investors is an absolute good. But perhaps he’ll also see it as an emphatic act supporting audit choice ­ not mere promotion of it. US regulators, surprisingly, do not baulk at intervention if they believe it is for the greater good.

Lastly, Cox has endorsed some of Boyle’s work on choice and is seen as an internationalist. He likes IFRS and wants to see it adopted in the US. He doesn’t believe all things foreign are un-American. It may be that he’ll see what we do as something that could be used back home.

Given that he appears to have a de facto veto, giving it a green light might send strong signals to the US market. In which case he will still have to tread carefully.

Gavin Hinks is editor of Accountancy Age

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