SOX Center

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 Office of Advocacy today praised Securities and Exchange (SEC) Commissioners Paul Atkins and Kathleen Casey for their willingness to reconsider the SEC decision not to extend the deadline for small public firm compliance with section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Advocacy wrote to the commissioners in the wake of the SEC’s decision not to […]

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 US Treasury has welcomed a statement released by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board regarding their votes to address the implementation of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act:
“The SEC and the PCAOB, after carefully considering the effects of Section 404, moved this week to strike the right balance […]

U.S. accounting overseers voted Thursday to streamline rules for auditors’ assessments of corporate financial statements, in a move that supporters say will save time and simplify burdens imposed by the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
By unanimous vote, the five members of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board approved a new standard directing accounting companies to focus their […]

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 […]

U.S. securities regulators will vote on tweaks to the controversial Sarbanes-Oxley law on Wednesday, finalizing changes initially approved in April amid continuing complaints from businesses about the law’s unpopular accounting provision.
At issue is Section 404 of the law, which was passed in 2002 following scandals at Enron and other companies. The section requires companies to […]

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 […]