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The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Paul Atkins, has pushed out the chief US audit regulator, who came under fire for imposing tougher sanctions on big accounting firms during her tenure.
Erica Williams told staff at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board on Tuesday that Atkins had asked her to resign and that she would be leaving the agency she has led since 2022.
The audit profession had chafed at the PCAOB’s more aggressive approach under her leadership, which involved introducing expansive new audit standards and imposing record fines on accounting firms for violations, and had called for a change of direction.
Republicans proposed abolishing the agency, although legislation that would have transferred its responsibilities to the SEC did not make it into the “big, beautiful bill” that passed Congress this month.
Atkins, a champion of light-touch regulation who was sworn in to the SEC chair in April, has signalled a break from the policies of Joe Biden’s administration, throwing out more than a dozen rules championed by his predecessor, Gary Gensler.
The SEC has oversight of the PCAOB and Atkins is the third chair in a row to clear out the leadership of the agency after taking office.
In a statement, Williams said strong audit standards were critical to US capital markets and warned against gutting the agency.
“With high economic uncertainty increasing the risk of fraud, the PCAOB’s mission is as important as ever,” she said. “It’s critical the expert PCAOB staff continue to be empowered to carry out their work of ensuring American investors are protected.”
In his own statement, Atkins said he accepted Williams’ resignation. “We look forward to advancing our oversight responsibilities of the PCAOB as it continues its important work,” he said.
Atkins was a vocal critic of the PCAOB in an earlier stint as an SEC commissioner in the 2000s, when he questioned the size of its budget and the practicality of some of its early audit standards.
The agency was created in the wake of the Enron scandal to enforce rules designed to prevent conflicts of interest at accounting firms and inspect their audits of US-listed companies.
Williams fought the Republican effort to abolish the agency, arguing the SEC would struggle to replicate its inspection regime, particularly its ability to oversee foreign audit firms.
In her email to members of staff, she lauded their effort to raise standards after their inspections showed an increase in deficient audit work in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
And she said “the groundswell of stakeholders who rallied to support the PCAOB in the face of recent legislation” was a testament to the value of their work.
