Auditing Statutes

Although several major congressional acts become law following the 1929 stock market crash - the
Securities Act of 1933, The Trust Indenture Act of 1939, The Investment Company Act of 1940, and
The Investment Advisers Act of 1940 - there are two that have come to define the role of internal
auditing within a legal framework: the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
of 2002. More recently, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has
specifically targeted practices within the financial service sector.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law in 2010
and is currently being implemented. It seeks to stabilize the U.S. economy by improving
transparency and accountability within the financial service sector. It's objective is to prevent the
possibility of an undue financial burden being placed on taxpayers by ending bailouts and doing
away with the 'too big to fail' mentality. The implementation of this act into law saw the creation of
two new federal oversight agencies: The Financial Stability Oversight Council and The Office of
Financial Research. As this sweeping legislative reform is being put into effect, internal auditors are
paying close attention to how this will affect the work they perform.