Former head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Bill McDonough announced plans to resign as chairman of the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).

McDonough said that he will resign his position November 30 or when his successor is in place, whichever is sooner. He will continue to serve as chairman of the Investments Committee of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund, chairman of the Review Group on the Organization of Financial Sector and Capital Markets at the International Monetary Fund and a member of the Board of the New York Philharmonic.

He didn’t give a definitive reason for his decision and noted that he has no intention of retiring. “I have a wide range of interests in corporate governance, finance and international affairs and will explore one or a variety of activities in those fields; I enjoy perfect health and have not the slightest interest in retiring, now or ever,” he added.

“I came to the PCAOB in June 2003 to help it fulfill the great responsibilities assigned to it by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to protect investors in U.S. public companies by overseeing the accounting firms that audit these companies,” said McDonough. “The PCAOB is now a vibrant institution… the supervisory process that we have adopted is working well, implemented by the adoption of auditing standards that make sense and an inspection process that helps auditors realize they must improve their practices to win back the support of the public.”

“The firms know that public confidence is won most quickly and effectively through their own efforts, helped and prodded when necessary by the PCAOB. Productive working relationships are being established as well with a variety of other countries for cooperation in dealing with overseas accounting firms auditing non-U.S. issuers of securities in American markets,” he added. “I have full confidence that the team of which I have felt honored to be part will rise to ever greater heights.”

Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, stated, “Bill McDonough has done an outstanding job as the chairman of the PCAOB. His experience at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York during some turbulent years amply prepared him for the pathbreaking work that he took on in June 2003. He has provided superb leadership at a critical time to our nation’s investors, capital markets, and public companies, as well as the accounting firms that audit them.

“I am especially grateful that he has agreed to remain at the PCAOB long enough to permit a thorough search for a worthy successor. For years to come, we will continue to build on his work for investors and for all who benefit from healthy capital markets,” he added.

Donald Nicolaisen, the commission’s chief accountant, said, “It has been an honor to work with chairman McDonough over the past two years on matters of extreme importance not only to auditors but also to the integrity of our securities markets. The credibility that investors place in companies’ financial statements depends in large part on the work, ethics and independence of the men and women who perform a critical examination of those statements during the audit process. When chairman McDonough took office investor confidence in that audit process was at its low ebb and he has led the efforts to establish a regulatory system that assures investors that auditors place investors’ interests above all other interests or concerns.”