SOX Center

Two more UK companies have announced they will delist their shares from the New York stock market to avoid the burden of complying with legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Both United Utilities and ICI expect to cut their compliance costs by millions of pounds a year by dropping their secondary listings in the US.
Warrington-based United […]

When the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission moved last week to relax a provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, it signalled the end to what could be called the Great Audit War.
Ever since U.S. lawmakers passed the corporate reforms in 2002, legal and financial executives have been waging a behind-the-scenes war with external auditors over the […]

The financial burden of Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) compliance is slowly, but surely starting to ease.
The cost of compliance with Section 404 of the SOX declined by 23% in fiscal 2006, according to a survey by Financial Executives International.
The Florham Park, New Jersey-based organization found the average company spent $2.9 million on SOX compliance in 2006, […]

To help CFOs of smaller companies navigate wisely through the Sarbanes-Oxley compliance process, Lord & Benoit has published a study, “10 Threats to SOX Compliance for Smaller Public Companies.”
The study comes on the heels of actions by the SEC and PCAOB to require smaller public companies to comply with SOX this year.
In summarizing the results, […]

The PCAOB has killed its reviled internal-control standard. Now it’s up to the SEC to pronounce it officially dead.
Perhaps the most hated rule to come out of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is dead. Well, almost. On Thursday, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board voted unanimously to replace its controversial internal-control auditing standard with Auditing Standard No. […]

Since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was adopted in 2002, non-U.S. issuers have become increasingly disenchanted with the regulatory burden of being listed on a U.S. stock exchange or otherwise having SEC reporting obligations. The most significant reason for non-U.S. issuers wanting to terminate their U.S. obligations is to avoid the internal control requirements under section 404 […]

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved new guidance on Wednesday to help companies comply with what critics say is a burdensome and costly provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate reform law.
The agency, by a 5-0 vote, encouraged companies to take a more risk-based approach to complying with Section 404 of the legislation.
“Congress never intended that […]

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board on May 24, 2007, will vote on a final standard on auditing internal control over financial reporting, as well as a related independence rule and conforming amendments to the Board’s auditing standards. If adopted, the new standard would supersede the Board’s existing auditing standard, Auditing Standard No. 2, “An […]

In ‘06, public companies benefited from earlier efforts to comply with the governance measure.
Public companies spent 23 percent less adhering to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s accounting rules in 2006, as they benefited from work done in earlier years to comply with the landmark federal corporate-governance law, a new survey found.
Complying with the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act […]

Penthouse International Inc. settled charges of accounting fraud and financial reporting violations, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday.
Former Penthouse executive Charles Samel and former shareholder Jason Galanis also agreed to each pay $60,000 to a settle accounting fraud charges, the SEC said.
Penthouse, the adult magazine, was formerly owned by Penthouse International, a […]