Article: Sarbarnes-Oxley turns five years old 2216



  • Below is an interesting commentary related to the SOX regulatory requirements which are imposed on all publicly traded companies in the United States. While I personally feel there have been many benefits, SOX has been costly. Some of the requirements have also been sometimes difficult (e.g., SOX 404) which have excerbated the overall cost factors. Hopefully, the forthcoming changes will help alleviate some of these costs
    MARKETWATCH: Sarbanes-Oxley turns 5 amid mixed results
    Please copy to browser and add www
    marketwatch.com/news/story/sarbanes-oxley-turns-five-proponents-see/story.aspx?guid={864E903B-7DED-4544-AD41-9DD5BFC5173E}
    SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) – Congress enacted Sarbanes-Oxley in 2002 in the wake of the spectacular collapse of Enron Corp. in an accounting scandal. The collapse led to the demise of auditor Arthur Andersen, one of the ‘Big Five’ accounting industry giants.
    Soon after Enron imploded, telecom giant WorldCom blew up in its own accounting scandal. It was with WorldCom in mind that lawmakers added the now infamous section 404 to SOX, which requires that chief executives and chief financial officers personally certify that financial statements are complete and accurate, under penalty of jail time. The kicker has been the responsibility of auditors to attest to management’s assertions, which critics contend led to additional cost burdens.
    A survey released this year by the Financial Executives Research Foundation revealed that the average 2006 cost for SOX compliance was USD1.2 million at publicly-traded companies for auditor attest statements alone. If this estimate, which did not factor in money spent on internal preparation, was to include all filers at more than 15,000 public concerns, it would equal about USD180 billion in 2006 costs.



  • Hi Harry, just wanted to gt some info on the survey released this year by the Financial Executives Research Foundation which revealed that the [b]average 2006 cost for SOX compliance was USD1.2 million at publicly-traded companies for auditor attest statements alone. I am gathering info on the disadvantages of SOX and would appreciate if i could get more info about and from this survey to document it in my paper. Thx.
    You could also contact me if you hae any other information which you feel would aid me in accomplishing the task at hand.
    Thank You


Log in to reply