The moves to try and fix Sarbanes Oxley are gathering pace with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board saying it will meet on December 19 to consider a revised auditing standard on internal control over financial reporting. The meeting, to be held at 9.30am Washington DC time, will be webcast on the PCAOB site

The open meeting will be held six days after the SEC holds its meeting to change requirements around Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley which requires companies to comply with all those mind-numbing, costly and time-consuming measures related to their internal auditing systems. The big change flowing out of that meeting will see small companies getting yet another time extension with their deadline being pushed back for a fifth time, reports CFO.com via Bloomberg.

The SEC is considering another change which will allow foreign companies to get out of complying with Sarbanes-Oxley if they can show that 5 per cent or less of their shareholders are US residents, according to a news report.

The PCAOB's proposals to fix the auditing standard is there in its press release.

And some of the points might need clarification. Consider this for example:

"Focus the Internal Control Audit on the Most Important Matters". Clearly, these matters look at the risk of the company making a material misstatement. But is there a difference between ''most important" and "material"? Just a question.

"Eliminate Procedures that Are Unnecessary to Achieve the Intended Benefits", "Incorporate Guidance on Efficiency" and "Provide Explicit and Practical Guidance on Scaling the Audit to Fit the Size and Complexity of the Company": that's all well and good, but what took them so long?

The same applies to the notion about having a simplified standard that's shorter, easier to understand, and can be tailored to fit companies of all sizes and complexity.

Chairman Mark Olson said: "While the requirements provide great benefits to companies and their investors, we are concerned that the costs are not adequately aligned with the benefits."

And how long did it take to get the regulators to realise that?