The Securities and Exchange Commission approved Wednesday the 2017 budget for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, allotting $268.5 million, a 4.2% increase over the PCAOB's 2016 budget and a 6.2% increase over the amount the the board expects to spend in 2016.
The budget is allocated as follows: $232.6 million to be assessed on issuers and $35.4 million to be assessed on registered broker-dealers.
PCAOB, established under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, is the independent overseer of the audits and auditors of the financial statements of U.S. public companies, as well as SEC-registered BDs.
The Dodd-Frank Act amended the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to, among other things, give the PCAOB oversight authority for the audits of broker-dealers registered with the SEC.
PCAOB perform its oversight through four primary responsibilities: registration, inspections, standard-setting and enforcement.