Regulators are moving toward revising rules for corporate financial controls in response to business complaints that they are overly burdensome and expensive. First, though, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the board that oversees the accounting industry are attempting to resolve differences over changes to be made to a key requirement of a 2002 anti-fraud law enacted after the wave of corporate scandals.
SEC Chairman Christopher Cox and Mark W. Olson, chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, met Sunday to discuss differing approaches toward the key part of the Sarbanes-Oxley law that arose from the scandals: the requirement for companies to file reports on the strength of their internal financial controls and to fix any problems.
