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Since the days of America’s first Treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton, New York’s financial markets have driven and sustained the nation’s economy. And for the last century, companies worldwide that sought to raise capital overwhelmingly came to the United States.

Sadly, and distressingly, that era may be coming to an end, as companies looking for money on the public markets are increasingly going to Europe or Asia. In 2005, initial public offerings of stock in Europe surpassed those in America — in both number and dollar volume. Even as the American IPO market improved in 2006, that trend accelerated: According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, there were 651 IPOs in Europe last year, versus 224 in the U.S., and the European offerings raised almost $40 billion more dollars. China’s markets, with fewer IPOs, raised 30 percent more capital than those in the United States.

WashingtonPost.com: Are U.S. IPOs DOA?

The U.S. Treasury Department will host a conference March 12-13 to discuss the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and possible reforms, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Thursday.

Businesses complain that Sarbanes-Oxley, a package of accounting and governance changes enacted by Congress after a wave of corporate scandals in the late 1990s, has proved too costly and difficult to follow. Paulson, speaking to the Economic Club of Washington, said overall, the changes have had a positive effect on business.

“The vast majority of the change, in my judgment, has been good,” Paulson said.

A look at recent scandals involving big payouts to company executives via backdated stock options stemmed from activities predating Sarbanes-Oxley, Paulson said. Sarbanes-Oxley reporting requirements discouraged such behavior later on, he said.

Morningstar: Treasury To Host Sarbanes-Oxley Conference March 12-13

Despite professions of independence, the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation has been accused of being sympathetic to the Bush Administration.

To anyone who has ever grumbled about shareholder lawsuits or Sarbanes-Oxley, last fall’s debut of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation should have been welcome. Comprising 22 members from the worlds of business, law, and academia, the CCMR announced that it would examine the effects of regulations on the competitiveness of U.S. capital markets. But both the committee and its first report, released in November, have come in for criticism.

For one, the committee has been accused of being sympathetic to the Bush Administration, despite professions of independence. Critics note that Treasury secretary Henry Paulson publicly praised the committee’s efforts, and that one of its co-chairs, John L. Thornton, was a top executive at Goldman Sachs during Paulson’s tenure there. Meanwhile, the other co-chair, Columbia Business School dean R. Glenn Hubbard, was formerly chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers.

CFO.com: Reform Effort Rebuked

Finance chiefs of the world’s seven richest nations agreed over the weekend to look at ways to cut back on overlapping regulations for companies doing business internationally while at the same time recognizing each nation’s unique rules and standards.

The agreement by the finance ministers and central bank governors of the G7 to try to harmonize their regulatory regimes and ease trade in securities across their borders appeared to be the latest attempt by policymakers to take a hard look at regulatory burdens on companies and markets.

In separate remarks to reporters, the Wall Street Journal reported, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he and his international counterparts are exploring ways to reduce overlapping financial regulations and standards that burden companies operating in the global market.

Regulations including accounting standards mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 have come under heavy fire by businesses and some lawmakers who say the rules are driving up the cost of doing business and making the U.S. less competitive.

MarketWatch: G7 takes aim at overlapping regulatory burdens