What does COSO mean?

COSO stands for Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the National Committee for Fraudulent Financial Reporting. According to the provisions of Article 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the corresponding implementation standards of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the management of listed companies is required to evaluate and report the effectiveness of the internal control of the company's financial report in the latest year. On March 9, 2004, the Accounting Oversight Committee of American Public Companies issued its auditing standard No.2: Audit of Internal Control of Financial Reports Related to Audit of Financial Statements, which was approved by the SEC on June 18. SEC's approval of this standard is equivalent to another recognition of COSO's Internal Control-Comprehensive Framework (also known as COSO's Internal Control Framework) published by 1992. This also shows that COSO framework has officially become the reference standard of internal control framework of American listed companies.

Therefore, it can be said that COSO framework is a suitable framework for American management evaluation objectives. Of course, other countries have also released some suitable frameworks, such as COCO framework in Canada. The standard also points out that although different frameworks may not contain exactly the same components as COSO, they contain components that cover all the general topics of COSO. Therefore, if management uses an appropriate framework different from COSO, auditors should use the concepts and standards in Auditing Standards No.2 in a reasonable way.

COSO internal control framework can determine three main objectives of internal control, namely, efficiency and effectiveness of operation, reliability of financial report and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. In addition, the standard takes control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication and monitoring as five components of the framework, serving the above three objectives.

Although COSO's internal control framework can't be regarded as the only suitable framework that meets the requirements of SEC, compared with the previous internal control evaluation standards, the work of the Accounting Oversight Committee of American public companies is of great progress significance for the design, implementation, supervision, evaluation and continuous improvement of standardized internal control. It enables managers at all levels of many American companies to effectively perform their internal control duties within a unified framework, and provides a basis for the accounting community to evaluate internal control. This standard will urge the company to establish an effective internal control and supervision system and lay a good foundation for effective corporate governance.