Is the SOX pain over? Are audit fees really on the way down, or is it a temporary blip?

That seems to be the suggestion from the latest Compliance Week analysis, reported in this press release here.

Still, don't open the champagne yet. Audit fees rose 3.2 per cent compared with 4.4 per cent the previous year. And when audit fees at a few 2007 companies with extraordinary transactions are eliminated from the calculation, it comes out to a 0.3 per cent reduction.

Compliance Week editor in chief Matt Kelly says the growing pains of Sarbanes-Oxley are well and truly over but these numbers are still miniscule. It might be the first decrease since Sarbanes-Oxley but it's tiny. If there is a trend, it needs to be monitored over a period of time. So don't celebrate yet. Just watch this space.