Ethical standards have undergone great changes over the years. Michael Josephson, in chapter 1 of Ethical Issues in the Practice of Accounting, 1992, described the "Ten Universal Values." They were as follows: honesty, integrity, keeping promises, faithfulness, fairness, caring, respect for others, responsible citizenship, striving for excellence, and responsibility. Good ethics do not always mean good business practices. The purpose of business ethics is to direct businessmen and women to abide by a code of conduct that facilitates, if not encourages, public confidence in their products and services (Smith & Smith, 2003, 3) . In the field of accounting, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) maintains and enforces a code of professional conduct for public accountants. The Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) and the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) also maintain a code of ethics (Smith & Smith, 3). Investors and accounting professionals have a responsibility to provide ethical guidelines for its members to follow; professional accounting organizations fill this role. Investors should know that there is a universal standard they can use to determine whether or not to invest when considering the financial information a company provides to the public. There are several organizations that manage ethics in accounting practices, writing guidelines and policies for accountants to adhere to. The relationship between the three that we're going to talk about is that they're all led by the Securities Exchange Commission. These guidelines allow investors to have a comparable standard when examining companies' financial statements. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) are three such agencies. The FASB is a non-profit organization. Since 1973, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has been the designated organization, in the private sector, to establish financial accounting standards, including reporting. The FASB regulates auditors of publicly traded companies. They are officially recognized as authoritative by the Securities and Exchange Commission (Financial Reporting Release No. 1, Section 101 and reaffirmed in its April 2003 Policy Statement) and by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (Rule 203, Rules of Professional Conduct, as amended May 1973 and May 1979) (FASB [FASB],3 ). Rules of this kind are necessary for the efficient functioning of the economy. Again, this is because investors, creditors, auditors and others rely on credible and comparable information about companies' financials. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a division of the federal government, employing approximately 3,100 people (SEC [SEC]).