The 24-page paper -- endorsed by the international chief executives of PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, BDO, and Grant Thornton -- took center stage Thursday at the Global Public Policy Symposium in Paris.

In the paper, the firms recommend replacing static quarterly financial statements with real-time, Internet-based reporting. The firms' leaders also suggest developing a new business model that simplifies reporting, and a new model for intangible assets. The paper calls for improved global reporting and auditing standards, which the International Accounting Standards Board and Financial Accounting Standards Board are jointly working on now.

And proof that the total collapse of former "Big Five" firm Arthur Andersen has not been forgotten, the leaders suggest relaxed liability standards for their companies. "Our firms are not and can never be the insurers of last resort for the capital markets, where capital flows each day are orders of magnitude larger than our combined capital bases, and where the market value of each of many large enterprises easily exceeds our combined capital by many times," the paper states.

It continues: "A regulatory and judicial system that clearly penalized those at fault rather than a system that inappropriately puts entire firms at risk would provide the proper incentives to discourage negligent or fraudulent audits without destroying the networks themselves."

The paper, titled "Global Capital Markets and the Global Economy: A Vision From the CEOs of the International Audit Networks," can be downloaded at http://www.globalpublicpolicysymposium.com/.

Separately, all six CEOs signed their names to a Wall Street Journal editorial, which appeared online Thursday. The commentary recommended "fresh thinking and action" on how companies report financial information. The WSJ article is titled "Caveat Auditor?"