Everyone knows that Sarbanes-Oxley has been a licence to print money for auditors and accountants.

And the latest figures from the CCH Public Accounting Report show that revenue growth rates reported by most Top 100 accounting firms have hit the highest reported level since 2000.

In fact, it's nearly doubled in a space of just 12 months. Beancounters now enjoy an average revenue growth rate of 16.5 per cent, compared with a growth rate of 9.1 per cent in 2005.

And while revenues for the Big Four firms increased 14.7 per cent, it skyrocketed 21.9 per cent for non-Big Four firms.

How many businesses can boast those sorts of figures? As Public Accounting Report editor, Jonathan Hamilton, says, life is very good for accounting firms these days.

Still, there is some inevitability about all this. As Ernst & Young chief executive officer James Turley told me in this interview, it's all because of increased demand for accountants and auditors.

"There's no question that the level of effort has gone up. Partly that's because of the demand from investors for more risk protection. We have greatly increased demand for our services the world over and that has resulted in more costs for clients."

Of course, Sarbanes-Oxley underpins this investor demand for risk protection.

It's one of the perverse ironies about a piece of legislation brought in to protect investors from accounting shenanigans.