We investigate whether accounting restatements are associated with proxies for the financial expertise of CFOs. The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) jointly released guidelines for audit committees that stated ‘‘because of the audit committee’s responsibility for overseeing the corporate accounting and financial controls and reporting this committee clearly has a recognizable need for members with accounting and/or related financial expertise—where ‘expertise’ signifies past employment experience in finance or accounting, requisite professional certification in accounting, or any other comparable experience or background which results in the individual’s financial sophistication, including being or having been a CEO or other senior officer with financial oversight responsibilities’’ (Blue Ribbon Committee 1999, 25).2 Since CFOs are also expected to oversee corporate accounting and controls, we develop proxies that are consistent with both the Blue Ribbon Committee’s definition of financial expertise and guidance concerning the acquisition of financial expertise mandated in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.3 Specific characteristics that we study include the years of experience that the CFO has in the role of chief financial officer, whether the CFO has prior experience at another company, whether the CFO has a master’s degree in business administration (M.B.A.), and whether the CFO is a certified public accountant (CPA). We find that companies that have CFOs with a CPA, an M.B.A., or more experience as CFOs are less likely to restate earnings. An important point to note is that while we test for an association between a lack of CFO financial expertise and restatements, we are unable to distinguish whether CFOs who lack expertise cause restatements or whether restating companies are simply more likely to choose CFOs who lack expertise.