Quarterly update for audit committees

Find out how audit committees can prepare for 2025 Q3 reporting.

The risk landscape and ongoing business volatility are compelling companies to rethink supply chains, optimize portfolios and shift priorities from cost management to financial resilience. Meanwhile, geopolitical risk remains a cornerstone of strategic planning as economies become increasingly regionalized, requiring companies to adapt to local changes while maintaining a global perspective. Amid this persistent uncertainty and in the face of rapid technological advances business leaders are carefully evaluating capital expenditures and investment decisions, increasing their strategic discipline to navigate the challenges ahead.

Key AI regulatory developments

Technology, particularly AI, remains an important policy issue, and organizations are preparing for a complex AI regulatory landscape. On 23 July 2025, the Trump administration released “Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan.” The plan is structured on three pillars — accelerating innovation, building infrastructure, and leading in international diplomacy and security, laying out dozens of actions that federal agencies can take.

Boards and audit committees are evaluating the administration’s technology policy and will want to monitor these changes and understand the impacts of the changing regulatory environment. As companies continue to invest in and deploy AI, boards should understand the business implications of the administration’s national AI strategy and also verify that teams such as policy monitoring and government relations have sufficient resources to be effective in this environment.

Accounting and disclosures

Navigating macroeconomic conditions along with trade policy will be an ongoing priority this quarter. Accordingly, audit committees will continue to evaluate evolving impacts of the uncertain economic environment and other shifts in the business landscape on their financial reporting processes.

Companies will need to consider how the tax and budget legislation signed into law by President Trump on 4 July 2025, formerly named the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act ,” affects the accounting for income taxes and disclosures.

As tax evolves, audit committees should closely monitor the accounting and internal control implications arising from these changes. Download the PDF for more details.

SEC rulemaking and other regulatory considerations

Chair Paul Atkins has focused considerable attention on digital assets, stating that a central goal of his is to build framework to “maintain US dominance” in crypto asset markets. As a member of the president’s working group on digital asset markets, Chair Atkins contributed to a report outlining policy recommendations to strengthen US leadership in this area. He launched “Project Crypto,” an initiative aimed at changing SEC regulations to allow financial markets to move onto the blockchain. Chair Atkins has directed staff to draft documents to provide “clear and simple rules of the road for crypto asset distributions, custody, and trading.” The agency has also continued to issue statements to clarify its views on how securities laws apply to digital assets and crypto-related activities.

During the quarter, the first bill to regulate stablecoins — the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, also known as the GENIUS Act – was signed into law. The GENIUS Act provides a broad legal framework for digital assets products, including oversight and requirements for payment stablecoins.

Download the PDF to read more about the GENIUS Act and the latest PCAOB and FASB developments.