By Cydney Posner

Here's a change of pace to distract you from the mayhem in the market today: The SEC has issued a release adopting a technical amendment to Item 407 of Reg S-K to update a reference to Independence Standards Board Standard No. 1. Under existing Item 407, an issuer’s audit committee must state that it has received from the independent accountants the written disclosures and letter required by Independence Standards Board Standard No. 1 ("ISB No. 1"). That standard was previously adopted by the PCAOB as an interim standard, but has been superseded by the PCAOB’s newly adopted Ethics and Independence Rule 3526, Communication with Audit Committees Concerning Independence. The amendment will become effective on September 30, 2008.

Please note that you will need to change the existing reference in the audit committee report from the old standard ("Independence Standards Board Standard No. 1, (Independence Discussions with Audit Committees), as adopted by the PCAOB in Rule 3600T") to reflect the new standard as follows: "The Audit Committee has also received the written disclosures and the letter from the independent accountants required by applicable requirements of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board regarding the independent accountants' communications with the audit committee concerning independence, and has discussed with the independent accountants the independent accountants' independence." The general nature of the SEC's reference is intended to avoid the need to update a specific reference in the future if subsequently changed.

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