New Demands on Industry CPAs Spark New Committees

By Ernest J. Markezin, Director, Committee Services

In much the same way that the sparks from the likes of Enron and WorldCom helped ignite corporate reform legislation, the post–Sarbanes-Oxley demands faced by CPAs, specifically industry CPAs, have been the spark for the interest in creating several new statewide committees.

The New York State Society of CPAs’ Industry Oversight Committee, chaired by Ed Halas, and the Committee on Committee Operations, chaired by Spencer Barback, are reviewing member recommendations for three new committees. Two will be geared toward assisting members in industry who are faced with new expectations and new demands associated with risk management, internal control audits and best practices, among other issues, while the third committee will recognize the expanding demands on CPAs in the financial products arena.

The proposed Risk Management and Business Insurance Committee is in development, not only to fill a need for a Society committee to address the traditional role of a risk and insurance manager, but also in response to the nonconventional areas of risk management that CPAs increasingly find themselves responsible for. Today, CFOs, treasurers and other CPAs, along with risk managers, are being asked to manage risk associated with everything from employee safety and human resource issues to product liability, disaster recovery and geographic risk. Traditional corporate finance this is not. This new committee is expected to provide members with a networking group for this expanding field, to be a source of knowledge and education and to establish ties with other risk management professionals and organizations.

For members who have recently made a move in their career from public practice to a position in industry, a New to Industry Committee is being planned to assist those individuals with their transition and potentially unfamiliar responsibilities. For example, some CPAs’ involvement with their firm’s billing system may be limited to getting timesheets done, signing a billing letter and making the periodic call to a frugal client. When those CPAs make the move to a controllership position, their involvement with billing just might be the principal component of their job—responsibility for the entire accounts receivable system of their employer, from clerical staff to technology systems to banking arrangements.

The New to Industry Committee, featuring guest speakers and mentors, is expected to be a forum for members to facilitate their transition and a resource network for members new to the unique challenges faced by industry members in today’s environment. Members new to industry, as well as experienced industry executives willing to share their experiences, are encouraged to join.

The existing Taxation of Financial Institutions and Products Committee (TFIP), chaired by Leon Metzger, has grown substantially over the past two years and has found itself faced with a growing array of nontax financial products issues, in part due to the more guarded regulatory environment of today. In order to more effectively deal with the nontax issues while allowing the efforts of a highly successful tax committee to continue, TFIP plans to spin off a new committee. The new committee will focus its attention on the accounting and operational implications for originators, intermediaries and end users of new and existing financial products, developments in the areas of short selling, credit analysis and valuation, and proposals of the Securities and Exchange Investment Management Division, the Commodity Futures Trading Division and other regulatory bodies.

These three committees currently are being formed and reviewed with the expectation that they will be up and running by June 1. For more information on these planned committees, contact the author at ejmarkezin@nysscpa.org or 212-719-8303.