Carcello testifies before Congress

Carcello

UT professor and former county Audit Committee Chairma Joe Carcello testified in Washington, D.C., before the Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises, a committee within the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.

Carcello serves several roles within UT's Haslam College of Business—department head for accounting and information management, EY and Business Alumni Professor, and cofounder and executive director of the C. Warren Neel Corporate Governance Center.

Carcello will be testifying on five proposed bills under the heading "Legislative Proposals to Improve the U.S. Capital Markets." Of the five witnesses, two are academics—Carcello and a law professor from Stanford University.

Carcello will encourage Congress to consider the needs of suppliers of capital (investors) rather than only the users of capital (companies).

"Efforts that focus on reducing regulatory safeguards may make it easier for companies to seek public capital but may fail in their intended purpose if they drive the suppliers of capital, the investors, from the market," said Carcello. "In the absence of sufficient regulatory safeguards, investors can currently withdraw from the market or raise the cost of capital to higher levels to compensate for increased risk, but neither outcome enhances capital formation.”

Carcello has testified before U.S. Treasury Department committees, working groups on the future of the auditing profession as well as a Congressional subcommittee on accounting and auditing regulation.