WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators are proposing new rules designed to keep accountants independent from companies they audit while also looking to ease restrictions on stock ownership by accounting firms' employees and their families.
The Securities and Exchange Commission was voting Tuesday on the proposed rules, including a plan that would impose new limits on consulting services that accounting firms can provide their clients.
Some officials of accounting firms say that would bring an undesirable restructuring of their industry by forcing firms to split off their valuable consulting businesses.