The Chief Financial Officers (CFO) of listed companies can be any person with financial or accounting background, a Sebi committee has said setting aside a proposal by market regulator to appoint only chartered accountants as CFOs.
The Sebi Committee on Disclosures and Accounting Standards (SCODA) has suggested that person who possesses "experience in financial or accounting or any other comparable experience or background which results in the individual financial sophistication" can be appointed as CFO of a listed firm.
SCODA wants that persons with requisite financial qualifications could be appointed as CFOs of the audit committees of the listed companies, said a discussion paper 'Proposals relating to amendments to the listing agreement' on which the regulator has sought opinion from stakeholders by September 25.
Following the Satyam fiasco, the SEBI board held the view that CFOs of listed companies should be chartered accountants and asked the SCODA to explore the possibility of prescribing a professional qualification for such functionaries.
The committee (SCODA) also proposed that the partners of the audit firm signing the audited accounts of any listed entity may be rotated every five years and the audit committee will be responsible for ensuring independence of the audit firm and the partners.
