No surprises that the Securities and Exchange Commission has finally come out with its relief package providing smaller public companies and most foreign private issuers an extension on complying with the internal control provisions of Sarbanes Oxley Section 404.
The reporting date for smaller public companies will be moved back six months, to fiscal years ending on, or after, December 15, 2007. A select group of foreign companies will reprieve for a full year until until the fiscal years ending on, or after, July 15, 2007. No relief for foreign private issuers that are large accelerated filers.
The changes are expected with reports of the SEC chairman, Christopher Cox, in his second year on the job, leading a commission to mend Sarbanes-Oxley without ending it. The heat is on.
But the response to the changes has been nothing short of underwhelming and damning with Faint praise, suggesting that critics want more. The package is not enough.
Herbert S Wander, co-chairman of the advisory committee that recommended an outright exemption to the law, said the SEC was moving "in the right direction", reports the New York Times.
And the NMM Business Continuity Blog sums it up thus: Some Small-Cap & Foreign Issuers Are More Trustworthy Than Others
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