Thursday, January 17th, 2008
Recent Industry Headlines
We peruse the Internet headlines so you don’t have to. Here are the recent headlines (and links) we felt newsworthy:
SEC panel warns XBRL could have costs like Sarb-Ox - Made up of business executives and academics, the advisory group to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed the regulator take a staged approach in requiring companies to file financial data in XBRL.
The SarBox: The bill for restatements can be costly - Companies that correct financials end up paying more to lenders.
Report Estimates New Costs of SOX Compliance - A new report finds the cost of compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 internal control audit requirements for smaller public companies is actually about 14 percent lower than the Securities and Exchange Commission’s original estimates.
Security management tops IT strategy league - The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) said that IT governance moved up the list from sixth to second place this year, reflecting the market’s renewed emphasis on corporate governance and responsibility.
Audit Market Growing More Concentrated - The audit market for large public companies has become more concentrated among the Big Four firms, but not enough to require corrective action, according to a government report.
GAAP is still around - Mr. Cox stressed that there are too many imperfections in international accounting standards to switch wholesale to IFRS at this point. Additional work must be done before the SEC would be able to recognize the International Accounting Standards Board as the sole accounting regulator, Mr. Cox said, including changing language in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Syms move to delist raises hackles of some investors - "Companies that leave a prestigious exchange such as the NYSE lose access to investors who have no confidence in stocks sold over the counter"
Compliance, Convergence and How IT Fits - There are more government rules for companies to follow, more departments required to follow them, and more legal risks for not doing so. Proactive executives can use IT to design and implement an effective compliance program to coordinate an organization’s various compliance processes.
Posted in Regulatory Reform, Sarbanes Oxley | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
Boards ‘Serve Management, Not Shareholders’ - High-net-worth investors and financial advisers said corporate board members are too closely aligned with the interests of executive management teams, not shareholders.
Controls not up to job - Fewer than half of Canada’s public companies say their internal controls are up to the task of providing effective safeguards against fraud and error, says a new report.
Just Look at Yourselves - Board performance assessments are still a work in progress.
PwC defends audits faulted by PCAOB - "We believe as a matter of professional judgment that the audit procedures originally performed were responsive to our risk assessment and also to the result of our testing of the issuer’s internal controls over both its forecasting and impairment assessment processes."
Dell to lower writedowns on restated earnings - Dell, the world’s second-biggest computer maker, said on Tuesday that writedowns in restated past earnings would be less than expected.
PCAOB CFO Resigns - The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announced Monday that Tom Hohman is resigning from his position as the board’s chief financial officer to become a CFO of a private company.
Corporate governance: Crack down - Compliance processes and risk management are undermining the independence of internal audits
Posted in Regulatory Reform, Sarbanes Oxley | No Comments »
Thursday, October 4th, 2007
www.SoxInstitutue.com peruses the Internet headlines so you don’t have to. Here are the recent headlines (and links) we felt newsworthy:
What Has SOX Done For Us Lately? - As a result of Sarbanes-Oxley, we’ve seen business codes of conduct steadily move from a rather loosely defined back-burner element of corporate governance to an element that is now explicit and far more prominent.
Treasury names group to improve audit industry - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson named a 19-member panel to study and improve the U.S. auditing industry on Tuesday, saying there are "legitimate questions" about the profession’s business model and small number of big firms.
Sarbanes-Oxley = a downturn in corporate risk-taking - Two academic studies commissioned by the American Enterprise Institute conclude that SOX, as it’s fondly known, has reduced the corporate risk-taking that produces economic growth.
Indian Regulator Pursuing 20 Companies on Governance - The Indian stock market regulator has in the past two weeks issued notices to 20 large companies that have not complied with corporate governance regulations.
Internal Auditors Need to Manage Risk - Internal auditors should begin adopting more of a risk management mindset, recommends a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Directors see CEO pay still out of control-survey - Despite the recent requirement for companies to disclose more about executive compensation, a majority of corporate directors still feel that chief executive pay is out of control, a survey showed on Monday.
GAAP Goes Interactive - The SEC creeps closer to making XBRL mandatory.
Conduct Breach Forces CEO to Resign - A violation of corporate "blackout period" rules at The Children’s Place results in the resignation of the company CEO. A second executive is barred from being an officer.
Intl Rectifier Adds Financial Controls - Power chip maker International Rectifier Corp. will shift reporting of its internal audit function to the audit committee of the company’s board and general counsel, in a move to tighten financial controls amid an accounting probe.
Posted in Regulatory Reform, Sarbanes Oxley | No Comments »
