Comptroller v. Controller

[Dave Wilton]

>         The Securities and Exchange Commission recently drew
> a distinction between these two words, which I had thought of
> as being interchangeable:
>
>         >>The Sarbanes-Oxley Act uses the term "comptroller."
> It is our understanding that a comptroller position generally
> is the position in a government agency or non-profit
> organization with oversight responsibilities for the agency's
> or organization's primary accounting function. We believe
> that for-profit organizations typically use the term
> "controller" to describe this function. Therefore, throughout
> this release, we have used the term "controller" instead of
> the term "comptroller."<<
>
> Securities and Exchange Commission, Disclosure Required by
> Sections 404, 406 and 407 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002,
> Release No. 33-8138, fn. 46 (Oct. 22, 2002).

Garner's Dict. of Modern American Usage supports the SEC's contention (as
does my personal experience in both government and business). But this is a
tendency only. You will find many public institutions that use "controller"
and many businesses that use "comptroller." There is no semantic
distinction, only in spheres of use.