Securities Regulation Daily Wrap Up, SEC NEWS AND SPEECHES—SEC ‘Material Matters‘ discussion with Chair Paul Atkins and Chief Accountant Kurt Hohl, (Aug 10, 2026)

By R. Jason Howard, J.D.

The OCA is primarily focused on financial statement materiality.

In Podcast Episode 4, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and the SEC’s Chief Accountant, Kurt Hohl, discussed how accounting and auditing can strengthen investor confidence, artificial intelligence, the importance of materiality in financial reporting, and efforts to align global accounting standards.

During the episode, Kurt stated that investors want information but explained that there’s a difference between investor wants and needs which comes down to a question of materiality. Kurt then explained that in the Office of the Chief Accountant (OCA) the approach is to look to the Supreme Court definition to determine what is material information for someone to buy, sell, or hold a security. If they don’t do that and instead focus on other interests of investors, you get into social issues and will lose the whole meaning of the financial disclosure documents. So, the OCA is primarily focused on financial statement materiality.

Kurt then explained that Sarbanes-Oxley did a lot to change how the audit profession operates and that the PCAOB serves an important role, but it is funded through assessments by public companies and broker-dealers, so those costs are borne by investors.

The conversation then turned to artificial intelligence and its interest in the marketplace and by people in their ordinary day-to-day lives. Kurt likened the rise of AI to the late 80s and early 90s when the internet was the new technology and wondered how we could function without it. Kurt stated that he sees AI as “probably having a more significant impact on businesses financial reporting on everything that we do going forward.” The questions are whether auditors are using the technology responsibly and whether it is producing the desired outcome.

Turning to the focus on international issues, Kurt explained that it’s important to focus on those matters because the OCA is the guardian of financial presentation at the SEC and it’s important to make sure that the standards being developed are fair and proper. From the auditor’s perspective, the audit firms have to “make sure that they have resources globally for global clients or global issuers that can serve on SEC auditors.” So, the OCA is “working with the other international regulators and other key stakeholders, including investors and auditors and accountants to make sure that we can put in place accounting standards that are as close to one another as possible and that investors can have trust in the financial information that they're relying on.”

RegulatoryActivity: AccountingAuditing AINews GCNNews SECNewsSpeeches