Whois & Analysis for pcaobus.org

An audit is a systematic and independent examination of books, accounts, statutory records, documents and vouchers of an organization to ascertain how far the financial statements as well as non-financial disclosures present a true and fair view of the concern.

It also attempts to ensure that the books of accounts are properly maintained by the concern as required by law.

Auditing has become such a ubiquitous phenomenon in the corporate and the public sector that academics started identifying an "Audit Society".

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is a private-sector, nonprofit corporation created by the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 to oversee the audits of public companies and other issuers in order to protect the interests of investors and further the public interest in the preparation of informative, accurate and independent audit reports.

Since 2010, the PCAOB also oversees the audits of broker-dealers, including compliance reports filed pursuant to federal securities laws, to promote investor protection.

All PCAOB rules and standards must be approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In financial services, a broker-dealer is a natural person, company or other organization that engages in the business of trading securities for its own account or on behalf of its customers.

Broker-dealers are at the heart of the securities and derivatives trading process.

An investor allocates capital with the expectation of a future financial return.

Types of investments include: equity, debt securities, real estate, currency, commodity, token, derivatives such as put and call options, futures, forwards, etc.

This definition makes no distinction between those in the primary and secondary markets.

That is, someone who provides a business with capital and someone who buys a stock are both investors.

An investor who owns a stock is a shareholder.

A public, publicly traded, publicly held company, or public corporation is a corporation whose ownership is dispersed among the general public in many shares of stock which are freely traded on a stock exchange or in over the counter markets.

In some jurisdictions, public companies over a certain size must be listed on an exchange.