SEC Open Meeting Agenda
Tuesday, November 19, 2002, 2:00 p.m.

Agenda as of the morning of November 18, 2002. Note that Open Meeting agendas are subject to last-minute changes.

Item 1:	Retention of Records Relevant to Audits and Reviews Office:  Office of the Chief Accountant Staff:  Jackson M. Day, Samuel L. Burke, Robert E. Burns, D. Douglas Alkema
Item 2:	Strengthening the Commission's Requirements Regarding Auditor Independence Office:  Office of the Chief Accountant Staff:  Jackson M. Day, Samuel L. Burke, Robert E. Burns, Paul Munter
Item 3:	A Report to Congress in Accordance with Section 356(c) of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 Office:  Division of Investment Management Staff:  Robert E. Plaze, C. Hunter Jones, Martha B. Peterson, Deborah F. Silberman, Robert S. Kim

Item 1: Retention of Records Relevant to Audits and Reviews

For further information, please contact Samuel L. Burke or Robert E. Burns at (202) 942-4400.

Item 2: Strengthening the Commission's Requirements Regarding Auditor Independence

The Commission will consider proposing amendments to its existing requirements regarding auditor independence to enhance the independence of accountants that audit and review financial statements and prepare attestation reports filed with the Commission. As directed by Section 208(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the Commission is considering proposing rules to:

• Revise its regulations related to the non-audit services that, if provided to an audit client, would impair an accounting firm's independence;
• Require that an issuer's audit committee pre-approve all audit and non-audit services provided to the issuer by the auditor of an issuer's financial statements;
• Prohibit partners on the audit engagement team from providing audit services to the issuer for more than five consecutive years;
• Prohibit an accounting firm from auditing an issuer's financial statements if certain members of management of that issuer had been members of the accounting firm's audit engagement team within the one-year period preceding the commencement of audit procedures;
• Require that the auditor of an issuer's financial statements report certain matters to the issuer's audit committee, including "critical" accounting policies used by the issuer; and
• Require disclosures to investors of information related to the audit and non-audit services provided by, and fees paid by the issuer to, the auditor of the issuer's financial statements.

In addition, under the proposed rules to be considered by the Commission, an accountant would not be independent from an audit client if any partner, principal or shareholder of the accounting firm who is a member of the engagement team received compensation based directly on any service provided or sold to that client other than audit, review and attest services.

For further information, please contact Samuel L. Burke or Robert E. Burns at (202) 942-4400.

Item 3: A Report to Congress in Accordance with Section 356(c) of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001

The Commission will consider a recommendation to issue jointly, with the Department of the Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, a report to Congress on applying the anti-money laundering requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act to investment companies, as required by Section 356(c) of the USA Patriot Act. The proposed report recommends regulations to apply the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act to investment companies, including certain unregistered investment companies.

For further information, please contact Robert S. Kim at (202) 942-7961.