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The city is losing its competitive edge and could give up its place as the financial capital of the world in as little as 10 years, a study has found.
The study was commissioned by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Charles Schumer, who have been concerned about what they say is a growing threat to New […]

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said his first strategy in reform of the Sarbanes-Oxley law will be to “do it administratively” without an act of Congress. Schumer, who laid out no timetable for changes to the law, said both Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson have seen […]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has issued a paper describing a number of sound practices for financial and accounting controls at financial institutions. Weaknesses in these controls can contribute to inaccurate or incomplete financial reporting and potentially result in legal fees and fines, significant reputational damage and a loss of business.
pdf: Financial And […]

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act might be meant to guard against massive white-collar scandals, but the resignation of a high-profile tech veteran suggests the law may also be restricting efficiency atop Silicon Valley’s corporate ladder.
Earlier this month, venture capitalist and Netscape founder Jim Clark announced his departure from the board of directors at photo-printing site Shutterfly, where […]

Clara Furse, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, plans to keep Nasdaq at bay, and on Thursday, she put money on it.
Furse has said privately in recent weeks that she would prefer to keep the exchange from Nasdaq’s clutches, and then promote its liberty from U.S. regulators after its rival Euronext pairs up with […]

A shareholder activist has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to open an enforcement investigation of Bear Stearns Cos. (BSC) for not promptly notifying him of its efforts to block a proposal he wants to put to a shareholder vote.
Conservative pundit Steven Milloy, who co-manages the Free Enterprise Action Fund, a Potomac, Md., mutual fund, […]

The Netherlands’ biggest companies are asking their accountants not to apply US accounting rules too stringently, in order to reduce their bills, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Tuesday. The paper says telecom firm KPN and five other AEX companies have already met the big accountantcy firms asking for a ‘Dutch interpretation’ of the rules of […]

ALL BUSINESS: Rolling Back Sarbanes-Oxley Corporate Reform Law Will Hurt Investors
Critics trying to build support for a rollback of corporate reform laws argue that they’re way too costly and have taken all the fun out of doing business in America. Those are lame excuses.
The latest rant comes from Shutterfly Inc. chairman Jim Clark. He said […]

Online photo site Shutterfly Inc. said on Monday that Chairman Jim Clark, co-founder of Web pioneer Netscape Communications, had resigned, saying securities regulations had “gone too far.”
In a letter to management released in a regulatory filing, the Silicon Valley veteran said he was resigning from the board both because the company has matured from a […]

The ICAEW, supported by the Confederation of British Industry, will today call on US regulators to ‘mutually recognise’ the rigour of British accounting standards, rather than try and impose the US system on British headquartered and regulated companies.
According to the Daily Telegraph, both organisations will be represented at a round table debate of senior accounting […]