With how many SOX like Acts do you have to comply next year?

[lekatis]

With how many SOX like Acts do you have to comply next year?

No kidding! If you are listed in 4 different countries, perhaps you have to comply with 4 similar but different SOX flavors and interpretations.

Sarbanes-Oxley is here to stay. I have heard several times that the Act will be definitely relaxed, is not any more needed, or even that it will be rewritten to meet international standards.

Well, the opposite is happening.

Not only thousands of international foreign companies try hard to comply with the US Sarbanes-Oxley, but also many countries develop a local version of this Act! We will have a flat world for public companies, and Sarbanes-Oxley will be the common framework.

Although the 8th Company Law Directive is considered the European post Sarbanes-Oxley regulatory retaliation, it is in fact a European version of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. You may wonder, why we speak about retaliation...

After the passage of the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, US and non-US companies listed in a US stock exchange have the difficult task to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

After the passage of the European Union’s 8th Company Law Directive on Statutory Audit (Directive 2006/43/EC), European and non-European companies listed in any country of the European Union have to comply with the 8th company law directive. Now, the American auditors have to be registered with the European national boards, just like the European Union’s auditors, that had to be registered with the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

EU Member States must transpose the directive into national law before 29 June 2008.

Companies listed in EU are directly affected. From the changes in the audit committee and the role of the board of directors to the new internal controls requirements, professionals in EU listed companies will face the same or similar challenges with their American colleagues that have to comply with the US SOX.

The Financial Instruments and Exchange Law is the Japanese version of Sarbanes-Oxley. It is unofficially called J-SOX and it is really very similar to SOX. There are requirements similar to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act Sections 302 and 404 (management certification and management evaluation and report on internal controls). Companies have to comply on or after April 1, 2008.

The moral of the story: You will not get rid of it!

THE GOOD NEWS: DEAR SOX PROFESSIONALS, YOUR SOX KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE IS A GREAT ASSET - WE HAVE NOW THE E-SOX and J-SOX IMPLEMENTATIONS!

HAPPY NEW YEAR
_________________
George Lekatis
President of the Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Professionals Association (SOXCPA)
www.sarbanes-oxley-association.com