（来源：四大新鲜事儿）
2026年10月19日，据CFO DIVE报道称，四大会计师事务所呼吁美国证监会（SEC）批准美国公众公司会计监督委员会（PCAOB）对审计质量控制准则作出的修订，这些修订将放宽审计质量控制标准。
本月，毕马威、普华永道、德勤和安永在提交给美国证券交易委员会的评论信中表示，美国公众公司会计监督委员会 (PCAOB) 对“QC 1000，会计师事务所质量控制系统”的修订减轻了合规负担，同时又不损害对投资者的保障。
美国公众公司会计监督委员会（PCAOB）上月通过的修订方案将于12月15日生效。该方案将取消对上一年度审计发行人数量超过100家的会计师事务所强制设立“外部质量控制职能”的要求。该外部职能原本用于复核会计师事务所自身对质量控制体系开展的内部评估。
修订后的规则还将废除“仅设计”规则，该规则原本要求会计师事务所即使不承接上市公司审计业务，也必须花费时间和金钱建立质量控制框架。新规修改为，会计师事务所只有在开始审计上市公司时才需要建立该框架。
普华永道在10月7日致SEC的信中表示：“我们认为，这些变化并未削弱投资者保护。相反，它们通过解决实施挑战、消除不必要的成本和冗余，以及处理标准初次采用后发现的非预期后果，增强了标准的聚焦性和可扩展性。”
毕马威在10月9日致美国证券交易委员会的信函中表示： “这些修订降低了复杂性，减轻了运营负担，并提高了与其他质量管理标准的一致性，同时保持了标准的严谨性和理事会保护投资者的目标。” 投资者团体已向该机构提交意见，反对这些被弱化的标准。
美国公众公司会计监督委员会（PCAOB）的修订可能会得到美国证券交易委员会（SEC）的积极响应。自2025年4月担任该机构主席以来，Paul Atkins已采取多项措施减轻合规负担，并扭转上市公司数量下降的趋势。
例如，Atkins提议提高确定哪些上市公司被视为“大型加速申报公司”并受严格的报告和内部控制审计要求的门槛。Atkins还寻求放宽股东委托书规则，并减少对公司的非财务披露要求。
投资者团体则反对削弱质量控制规则。
据CFA协会企业披露与信息倡导高级主管Sandra Peters称，该协会认为坚持外部质量控制评估要求是“非常高”的优先事项。
Peters在10月12日致SEC的信中表示，对于审计了几乎全部美国公开市场公司的会计师事务所而言，外部质量控制职能是投资者能够获得的最为明确的结构性保障。
她表示，该机构至少应要求审计超过500家上市公司的事务所设立外部质量控制职能 (EQCF)。
机构投资者委员会总法律顾问Jeffrey Mahoney在10月8日致SEC的信中表示，CII认为PCAOB应保留对上一个年度为超过500家上市公司出具审计报告的事务所的外部质量控制职能要求。
他表示，该机构应该“启动程序来确定”是否应该拒绝PCAOB的标准。
原英文报道如下：
Dive Brief:
The Big Four accounting firms called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to approve rule revisions by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board that would soften quality control standards for audits.
In comment letters filed at the SEC this month, KPMG, PwC, Deloitte and EY said the PCAOB amendments to “QC 1000, A Firm’s System of Quality Control” ease compliance burdens without undermining safeguards for investors.
“The amendments reduce complexity, ease operational burdens and improve alignment with other quality management standards, while preserving the standard’s rigor and the Board’s investor protection objectives,” KPMG said in an Oct. 9 letter to the SEC. Investor groups filed comments to the agency opposing the diluted standards.
Dive Insight:
The PCAOB revisions may receive a warm response from the SEC. Since becoming chair of the agency in April 2025, Paul Atkins has pursued several efforts to ease compliance burdens and reverse a decline in the number of publicly listed companies.
For example, Atkins has proposed raising the thresholds determining which public companies are deemed “large accelerated filers” and subject to stringent reporting and internal-control audit requirements.
Atkins also seeks to soften shareholder proxy rules and reduce non-financial disclosure requirements for companies.
The PCAOB changes, as adopted by the board last month and scheduled to take effect on Dec. 15, would drop the requirement that firms create a so-called External QC Function if they published more than 100 audits during the previous calendar year. The external overseers would assess an auditor’s internal evaluation of its quality controls.
The revisions would also scuttle the “design only” rule requiring an accounting firm to expend time and money creating a quality control framework even if it did not audit publicly traded companies. A firm would only need to set up a framework if it began such audits.
“In our view, these changes do not diminish investor protection,” PwC said in an Oct. 7 letter to the SEC.
“Rather, they enhance the focus and scalability of the standard by addressing implementation challenges, eliminating unnecessary costs and redundancies, and addressing unintended consequences identified following the standard’s initial adoption,” PwC said.
Investor groups oppose the blunted quality control rules.
The CFA Institute deems upholding the requirement for external quality control assessments a “very high” priority, according to Sandra Peters, the institute’s senior head of corporate disclosure and information advocacy.
The External QC Function “represents the single clearest structural safeguard investors have over the firms auditing nearly all of U.S. public market capitalization,” Peters said in an Oct. 12 letter to the SEC.
The agency, at a minimum, should require that firms auditing more than 500 public companies should set up an EQCF, she said.
The Council of Institutional Investors believes the PCAOB should have retained the EQCF requirement for firms that issued audit reports for more than 500 publicly traded companies during the prior calendar year, CII General Council Jeffrey Mahoney said in a Oct. 8 letter to the SEC.
The agency should “institute proceedings to determine” whether the PCAOB standards should be rejected, he said.
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