| The Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed changes to Sarbanes-Oxley 404 were due to be released Dec. 13, but before that, scholars from the American Enterprise Institute predicted the changes wouldn’t be the right kind. Instead of offering more guidance, one said, the SEC should start again, perhaps by making small business participation voluntary and requiring fewer audits after the first year of compliance. The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation has similar ideas, as its first report revealed. The committee suggested fewer internal controls, less frequent audits and a clearer definition of “materiality” to start. Whether the regulators can make the changes or Congress has to come in with new legislation, if they’re the right changes, the U.S. can regain its status as economically competitive. |
MORE SEC HEADLINES
SEC proposes easing of audit rules - By unanimous vote, commissioners voted to seek comment about making Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act more “risk-based,” thereby allowing executives to focus their energies on identifying the biggest potential risks to their corporations’ books.
Proposed SEC controls guidance targets risks - The SEC voted 5-0 at a meeting to propose letting companies take a narrower view on evaluating design and operation of internal controls, or how they keep their books in order.
Auditing change could ease burden on small firms - The proposal, which wouldn’t be adopted until early next year, means that small and midsize companies wouldn’t necessarily have to spend millions to overhaul their internal control systems to comply with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley.
Feds Give AICPA a Peek at SOX Plans - Top officials from the SEC and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board gave the accounting profession an advance peek at its plans during a meeting with American Institute of CPA members in the nation’s capital.
Jeffrey Skilling enters prison in Minn. - Former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling entered prison quietly on Wednesday, the final step in the fall of a man who once presided over one of Wall Street’s biggest success stories.
Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling’s New Prison Home Includes Roommates, Fish Sandwiches and Bunk Beds - Disgraced former Enron chief Jeffrey Skilling will still make money while serving his more than 24-year sentence for fraud and other crimes in a low-level federal prison in Minnesota. But at 12-cents an hour, it’s a far cry from the reported $40 million he once raked in as top dog of America’s energy industry.
Small companies see surge in restatements - The report, from proxy advisory and financial research firm Glass Lewis & Co., comes as financial regulators are expected to ease rules that take effect in 2008 on internal controls for smaller companies, which govern how they keep their ledgers in order.
Firms still struggling with compliance regulations - Compliance management is still largely a manual process which forces many IT organisations to devote “major staff resources” to reporting, new research has revealed.
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