Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO)

The COSO is an independent private sector initiative which was initially established to study the factors that can lead to fraudulent financial reporting. The private "sponsoring organizations" included the five major financial professional associations in the United States: the American Accounting Association, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Financial Executives Institute, the Institute of Internal Auditors, and the Institute of Management Accountants. The COSO has issued Internal Control�Integrated Framework, as well as Enterprise Risk Management�Integrated Framework, to assist organizations in developing comprehensive assessments of internal control effectiveness. The COSO is sometimes referred to as the Treadway Commission after its original chairman, James C. Treadway, Jr.