Everyone knows that Sarbanes-Oxley has been a gold-mine for accountants.

Now we have new evidence that it's also done a lot of good for chief financial officers. According to a study, finance chiefs are the ones most likely to get the top jobs in companies, reports The Economist. In 2005, one in five chief executives in America were former chief financial officers, almost double the share of a decade earlier.

The reason: CFOs are now hogging the limelight with the importance of quarterly reporting and increased scrutiny under Sarbanes-Oxley.

Just goes to show that not everyone's been doing it hard since SOX became law.