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TOPIC: An annual study by Oversight Systems found approximately 75 percent of certified fraud examiners claimed institutional fraud is more common now than five years ago according to an article by Wall Street and Technology. Four out of five survey participants cited the pressure “to do whatever it takes to meet goals” as the most common reason for corporate fraud. July 2007 marks the fifth anniversary of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which was passed in 2002 in an effort to prevent and deter accounting scandals, such as those that occurred with Enron and WorldCom.

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Yahoo.com: Experts Available to Discuss Survey on Corporate Fraud, Sarbanes - Oxley’s Fifth Anniversary

SINGAPORE: Creative Technology, whose music players compete with the Apple iPod, said it planned to end trading of its shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market to cut costs incurred by U.S. financial reporting requirements.

The Singapore-based company plans to file notice to remove the listing of its shares from the U.S. exchange on or around July 23, Creative said. The withdrawal will be effective 10 days after the notice is submitted, it said.

Last month Creative reported its fourth loss in five quarters for the three months to March 31 as sales missed the company’s expectations. U.S. financial reporting costs are set to climb as companies move to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which President George W. Bush signed into law in 2002 after accounting scandals eroded investor confidence.

Int. Herald Tribune: Creative Technology to leave the Nasdaq

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 audits of internal financial controls on the most important risks.

Under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, public companies are required to test and report their procedures for catching financial misstatements and fraud. The law was approved in the wake of accounting scandals that brought down companies like Enron and WorldCom.

But Section 404 of the act came in for heavy criticism from companies who said it cost large amounts of time and money by requiring extensive and sometimes unnecessary checks on financial reporting. It’s also been the cause of hang- wringing among some lawmakers and experts who claim it’s partly responsible for making U.S. capital markets less attractive to foreign companies, who fear the heavy compliance burden of the law.

Nasdaq: UPDATE: Accounting Board Streamlines Sarbanes-Oxley Rules

Several of the North Bay’s publicly traded companies will soon have to comply for the first time with the stringent accounting requirements of the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is still revising those requirements, and the companies face the dilemma of whether to prepare now using the current requirements or wait for the revisions, which are expected to ease the act’s burden on small companies.

Congress passed Sarbanes-Oxley in 2002 in response to accounting scandals at Enron Corp. and other companies, but since then smaller firms have been arguing that the act is too costly for companies without large accounting staffs.

North Bay Business Journal: Sarbanes-Oxley deadline approaches