Mr. Levitt said brokerage firms had alerted regulators and the National Association of Securities Dealers to most of the cases.

It has also alerted regulators to possible violations in Industrial Equity's public filings.

At that point, Kidder contacted the S.E.C. and New York Stock Exchange, alerting regulators that it expected a major loss of capital.

Business Week Sees Irregularities Business Week magazine said it alerted regulators to a pattern of suspicious trading in stocks recommended in its "Inside Wall Street" column.

S.E.C. officials said the new rules were intended to help accountants in alerting shareholders and regulators to significant financial problems or fraud.

But Laurie MacDonald, a Nestlé vice president, said the company routinely alerted regulators about competitors' products.

But because the compounds were persistent in the environment and in human blood, the company said it alerted regulators and began working to come up with alternative compounds.

The insurer handling Tenet's Medicare claims also alerted regulators some time in the middle of October about that company's high level of reimbursements.

The accounting expert said the report would show that the auditors should have been able to detect the problems and alert the public and regulators to pending insolvencies.

The case against Lucent dates back to November 2000, when the company alerted financial regulators about revenues it improperly recorded.