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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 monitor their internal controls over financial reporting, as well as to test their controls. The aim is to ensure accurate financial statements and to catch fraud.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board have been under pressure from Congress and businesses to adjust Section 404, which is often criticized as expensive and time-consuming.

MarketWatch: SEC to finalize Sarbanes-Oxley tweaks

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 holding company which also had movies, online content and entertainment clubs.

Penthouse is today published by General Media Communications Inc., which is a unit of Penthouse Media Group Inc, formerly known as General Media Inc. General Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2003 and later reorganized under the majority ownership of financier Marc Bell.

The settlement resolves the SEC’s accusations that the company used an unauthorized electronic signature of Bob Guccione, the magazine’s former chief executive officer, to meet Sarbanes-Oxley law certification requirements in its 2003 first-quarter report.

Reuters.com: Penthouse settles accounting fraud case with SEC

The Corporate Directors Club, with nearly 600 members nationwide, today announced the first program for Professional Director Certification. Directors of public companies are under increased pressure and scrutiny since Sarbanes-Oxley and there is a growing need for well educated, skilled and experienced professional directors. The Corporate Directors Club, whose membership is open to all directors and CEOs of public companies, free of charge, sponsors a full schedule of educational and social events across the country for its members.

Yahoo!Finance: Professional Director Certification Announced for Public Company Directors

The new world of corporate governance, in the view of Securities and Exchange Commissioner Roel Campos, is one in which Sarbanes-Oxley rules governing companies become more commonplace and affordable as shareholders continue to demand and receive more say over how companies are run.

“It’s what I see,” Campos said of the democratization trend with shareholders in a speech to the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors Tuesday. “I don’t think there’s anything to fear. It’s here to stay. Activists are going to be involved and try to influence decision-making.”

He outlined what he saw as growing opposition to staggered boards and poison pills, which make companies more resistant to takeover bids. He also expects to see more companies move to majority voting on boards, rather than the plurality that is now the standard, requiring only that a director get more shareholder votes than others to be elected.

Business Journal: SEC commissioner: Shareholder rights activism ‘here to stay’

US stock market regulation has little impact on where small companies decide to list their shares, according to a report from three North American academics. The widespread perception that the US’s Sarbanes-Oxley legislation is one reason why so many international companies have chosen to list in the UK is out of touch, the report argues.

Andrew Karolyi and Rene Stulz of Ohio State University and Craig Doidge of the University of Toronto say that although the regulatory burden on smaller companies has increased thanks to Sarbanes-Oxley, there has been no marked increase in US companies seeking a foreign listing.

However, the fact that all 67 US companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market in London have floated since the introduction of Sarbanes-Oxley indicates the opposite, and the proliferation of foreign companies seeking a UK listing highlights the attractions of London.

The Independent: Small Talk: AIM is working, despite the disasters

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday threw its weight behind finalising fresh guidelines aimed at clarifying how companies and auditors should comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley law.

The move signals that work by the US authorities to ease the burden of compliance with the 2002 law is moving into its final stage three months after proposed revisions were first floated.

At issue is how the SEC’s new guidelines for company management on implementing the law’s Section 404 internal controls provisions can be more closely aligned with separate guidance for auditors issued by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).

There is also disagreement over the extent to which external auditors should rely on a company’s own reviews of its controls.

This is testing US regulators’ willingness to adopt a more flexible, “principles-based” approach to corporate controls than those prescribed under Sarbox.

FT.com: SEC pushes clearer Sarbox guidelines

Republicans attempted to make compliance optional for companies with a market value of less than $700 million.

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday defeated a Republican attempt to weaken 2002’s post-Enron Sarbanes-Oxley laws by making it optional for many corporations to comply with a controversial section on internal controls. By a vote of 62-35, the Senate set aside an amendment to make compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley’s Section 404 optional for companies with total market value of less than $700 million.

The amendment was offered by South Carolina Republican Jim DeMint, who tried to attach it to a bill on the Senate floor that was focused chiefly on boosting investment in research, and improving science, engineering and math education.

In response to the amendment, defenders of Sarbanes-Oxley proposed and won passage, by a vote of 97-0, of a symbolic Senate statement expressing support for efforts already under way by federal regulators to fine-tune Section 404.

CNN Money: Senate rejects Sarbanes-Oxley change

Fifty percent of the CFOs who left companies did so for reasons other than finding another job. Those included inability to fit culturally into the organization, the increasingly stressful demands of the position and lack of current knowledge related to Sarbanes-Oxley, according to a survey by Right Management.

CFOs lasted in their positions for more than five years at 48 percent of the 191 organizations surveyed. However, CFOs stayed in their jobs for less than three years at 25 percent of companies. It typically takes between three and five months to replace a departing chief financial executive, according to the survey.

Respondents included primarily human resource managers and executives at mid-sized to large organizations in all industries.

SmartPros: Job Moves Account for Just Half of CFO Turnover

Few Give Stock Options a Second Look ATLANTA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Oversight Systems Inc. today released the results of the 2007 Oversight Systems Financial ExecutiveReport on Sarbanes-Oxley. The survey of 168 financial executives identifies growing benefits of continuous monitoring, improved management of year-three compliance costs and a positive jump in shareholder value.

The 4th annual survey found financial executives were bullish on the use of continuous monitoring in Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance, have begun to reign in the costs of year-three compliance, recognized a bump in shareholder value and report a risk-based approach to 2007 compliance.

Nearly two-thirds of financial executives (64 percent) see merits in using continuous monitoring as a detective tool in SOX compliance. Additionally, 58 percent feel it can serve as a preventative tool, 50 percent think it can facilitate management’s assessment of risk and help test the effectiveness of other controls, and 42 percent believe it can be used as a compensating or mitigating control.

Download the complete survey report

Yahoo!Finance: Oversight Systems 4th Annual SOX Survey Finds Financial Executives Hail Prospect of Continuous Monitoring, Bullish on Lower Compliance Costs

Markets: Investors are taking companies private at a record pace. On Monday, it was Sallie Mae, the mammoth school-loan company, in a $25 billion deal. Do private equity firms know something the rest of us don’t?

It sure seems so to us. Make no mistake about it: Sallie Mae is big, and dominant in its industry. More than a quarter of all college loans made in America have been made by Sallie Mae.

Sallie Mae’s business relies on a unique symbiosis with the U.S. government. Since about 85% of its $142 billion debt portfolio is guaranteed by Uncle Sam, it’s what economists call a “government-sponsored enterprise.”

That said, Sallie Mae is just another company in a highly regulated industry that’s going private. The last one to announce was Texas gas giant TXU Corp., in February. Maybe it’s a sign that the recent surge in regulation of public companies has gone too far.

Yahoo!Finance: The High Cost Of Sarbanes-Oxley