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by leon on February 14, 2010
We all know that Sarbanes-Oxley has been a bonanza for accountants and risk managers. Their fees have gone through the roof. The other group is company directors.As BusinessWeek reports, Sarbanes-O...
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by leon on January 14, 2010
One of the big changes with Sarbanes Oxley was the requirement for audit committees to be composed entirely of independent directors. No one is supposed to have any business or family ties with the...
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by leon on December 6, 2009
On Friday, I did a blog entry looking at a case starting in the Supreme Court this coming week questioning whether the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is constitutional. If the ...
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by leon on December 4, 2009
Amazing that seven years after it was signed into law, people are still pushing to wipe out Sarbanes-Oxley. On Monday next week, the Supremes will hear arguments that seek to dismantle Sarbox by w...
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by leon on November 25, 2009
At the beginning of this month, I looked at how Obama had dismantled the post-Enron reforms. Significantly, a Democratic-controlled House pushed through changes that in effect neutralize Sarbanes-...
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by leon on November 5, 2009
Earlier this week, I did a blog entry on how White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was pushing wants Democrats to let small public companies worth less than $75 million avoid complying with Sarb...
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by leon on November 3, 2009
It looks like small public companies will get another stay of execution from forced compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley.Bloomberg reports that Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel wants Democrats to spa...
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by leon on July 26, 2009
Section 304 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires chief financial officers and chief executive officers to reimburse the company bonuses and stock profits following a fraud. The rationale behind the leg...
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by leon on June 9, 2009
The big news around now is the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announcement that its chairman Mark Olson is resigning "to establish new priorities". Whatever that may mean.The int...
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by leon on May 5, 2009
Has Sarbanes Oxley lulled us into complacency and a false sense of security?That's the suggestion from Georgetown University law professor Ethan S Burger in this piece Today's Financial Crisi...
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by leon on April 15, 2009
Extraordinary that the debate about the impact of Sarbanes Oxley on IPOs still continues almost seven years after it was introduced. Particularly in this economic climate.Last week, The Wall Street J...
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by leon on February 2, 2009
Offshoring has become more prevalent in recent years. Most firms send part of their operations to cheaper places overseas.But offshoring of audit functions is becoming more popular and, according to ...
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by leon on January 29, 2009
It looks like the honeymoon is over for small companies.Incoming Securities and Exchange Commission chairwoman Mary Schapiro says she wants small public businesses to start complying with the Sarbane...
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by leon on November 21, 2008
Forgive me for this indulgence, I've never done this before. But this month marks the third anniversary of Sox First.Three years ago, I was invited to write about ethics, governance and Sarbanes-...
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by leon on October 2, 2008
For many years now, we have had an ongoing debate about whether Sarbanes-Oxley is forcing foreign companies to quit US equity markets.Now we have a new study Why do foreign firms leave U.S. equity ma...
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by leon on September 11, 2008
Time and time again, the deadline for smaller companies to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley has been pushed back. Now there's a new study that might leave you asking one question: what's the point?...
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by leon on August 25, 2008
Was it ever going to be any different? The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld the constitutionality of Sarbanes-Oxley, and in particular the Public Company Accounting...
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by leon on July 30, 2008
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.St...
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by leon on July 23, 2008
That's the fascinating question raised in a new Association of Certified Fraud Examiners report.First of all, the report finds that despite the purported intentions of Sarbanes-Oxley to increase ...
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by leon on July 3, 2008
When Sarbanes-Oxley was introduced nearly six years ago, it was supposed to improve the way audit committees and companies handled risk. Think again.Most companies are struggling to deal with risk, l...
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by leon on July 2, 2008
Plenty has been written about Sarbanes-Oxley being a licence to print money for accountants. But it's also done wonderful things for the shredding business, according to this news report.Since Sa...
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by leon on June 24, 2008
For the fifth time, the Securities and Exchange Commission has decided to give smaller companies another year stay of grace before complying with the audit requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley. But don'...
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by leon on June 23, 2008
It's hardly news but almost six years on, and corporate America still hates Sarbanes-Oxley.According to the National Survey of CEOs on Business Ethics, by Georgia State's Center for Ethics an...
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by leon on June 2, 2008
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 chie...
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by leon on May 29, 2008
Tough being a chief financial officer these days, post-Sarbanes-Oxley.It seems that CFOs of firms that have had to restate their numbers are more likely to be shown the door and a university of arkan...
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by leon on May 5, 2008
Turning into a whistleblower is a fraught decision. Once it happens, you can expect some form of retaliation. Many would say doing the right thing is not necessarily the right thing to do in terms of...
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by leon on May 2, 2008
Average compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley has now hit $1.7 million for big companies with average annual revenues of $4.7 billion. And while compliance costs are actually slipping, that hasn't stopp...
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by leon on April 27, 2008
In case you missed it, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board had its fifth birthday last week on April 25.So to help celebrate, Sarah Johnson at CFO.com reviews its short life life by the num...
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by leon on April 11, 2008
Much has been said about Sarbanes-Oxley stopping backdating. But is that true? Has it actually improved corporate governance?Under Sarbanes-Oxley, all high-level executive stock option grants and exe...
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by leon on April 2, 2008
After the US Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, US companies were forced to overhaul their systems of corporate governance. A Raft of changes were introduced. Auditors were required repo...
