
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted on Dec. 18 to approve the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's (PCAOB) 2025 budget and the related annual accounting support fee.
The regulator's 2025 budget amounts to $399.7 million while the accounting support fee totals $374.9 million, of which $346.1 million will be assessed on public company issuers. Meanwhile, $28.8 million will be assessed on registered broker-dealers.
“Well-functioning financial markets are built on trust,” noted SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “Critical to such trust are disclosures—including financial statement disclosures made by issuers and broker-dealers to the investing public. I have seen since the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley 22 years ago the importance of that law in promoting trust in public company figures. This trust, though, can easily be taken for granted. The PCAOB—an important reform of the George W. Bush Administration—writes the standards for auditors and audits the auditors. That’s the core of what it does, and it’s every bit as important now and into the future.”
SEC Chief Accountant Paul Munter also stated that, “I am confident in the Board’s ability to continue to act as a diligent and responsible steward of publicly sourced accounting support fees, as evidenced by their accomplishments this past year.”
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which created the PCAOB, gave the SEC the oversight responsibility over the PCAOB. The SEC's purview includes reviewing and approving the regulator’s annual budget and accounting support fee.