-----Original Message----- From: Brett Weber [texastonic2@attbi.com] Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2002 11:00 AM To: rule-comments@sec.gov Subject: New Auditing Oversight Standards (s7-24-02) While a more independent form of "private" regulation of the Accounting/Auditing profession will help to better assure investors of the accuracy of Financial Statements, I believe we can go a step further while keeping government involvement to a minimum. I recently read of a novel solution aimed at ensuring the accuracy of financial statement attestations, "Financial Statement Insurance". Under this program a publicly register company would pay a premium to an insurance company for a certification as to the accuracy of its financial statements. If the statements were certified and a problem was later discovered, the insurance company would provide some form of indemnification to shareholders. This system would ensure thorough and accurate auditing of statements because insurance companies would be very independent of company management and would be interested in ensuring that they were not taking on an unacceptable amount of risk through certification of the client's statement. As an insurance industry professional, and CPA, I realize this approach is a dramatic departure from convention, but one I believe has merit. Should such a system be put in place I believe the insurance companies involved would be able to turn a decent profit, while remaining completely independent, and thus attract very qualified Accounting professionals to carry out the examiniation work.