Smaller companies should prepare to become “more familiar” with the auditor attestation requirement under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, an SEC commissioner told a group of compliance officers gathered in Washington D.C.

The SEC’s cost-benefit study on Section 404 is “close to final” and the anecdotal evidence is that “the hard learning that the large accelerated filers have done, the work by the PCAOB in re-doing Auditing Standard No. 5, and guidance given by groups such as COSO have all tended to help create a more scalable system,” SEC commissioner Luis Aguilar told attendees at Compliance Week’s annual conference.

In response to a question about whether non-accelerated filers would finally have to comply with the provision, Aguilar said, “The expectation and hope is that the costs are going to be more in line with smaller companies.”

Smaller companies currently comply with the management assessment required under 404(a). They’re slated to comply with Section 404(b) until fiscal years ending on or after Dec. 15, 2009. When the SEC granted those companies yet another extension on compliance with the auditor attestation provision last year, the Commission said it would use the time to study the costs and benefits of SOX 404 implementation and assess whether its efforts to ease that burden have helped, seemingly leaving the door open to another delay. However, the SEC’s new chairman, Mary Schapiro, has said she wants to “bring uniformity to the system,” suggesting that small companies may really finally have to bite the SOX 404(b) bullet.

“If I was a betting person … I think smaller issuers will be familiar with 404(b) more so than they are now,” Aguilar said during a Q&A session following his June 3 speech. Any further extension would have to be approved by the SEC’s five commissioners.

So far, the SEC has been mum on when it will publish the findings of the study. Speaking to reporters after the Q&A, Aguilar noted that if the study “indicated a vast disconnection between the costs and benefits, we would have to revisit it, but my working hypothesis is that it won’t be extended.”

During his remarks, Aguilar reiterated his support for an “Integrated Capital Markets Regulator” that would combine the functions of the SEC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the functions of the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration.

While Aguilar called the odds of a merger between the SEC and CFTC “low,” speaking to reporters after the event, Aguilar said, “If it’s ever likely to happen, this is the moment … but I fully appreciate the politics behind those decisions.” Turf wars between the congressional committees that oversee the two agencies have been blamed as hampering past merger efforts.

Though he said he has no objection to the CFTC maintaining oversight for agricultural commodity derivatives, Aguilar says derivatives that “are nothing more than an economic substitute for securities” should be regulated by the SEC.

Aguilar also addressed the topic of enforcement. Thanks to an increase in the agency’s resources and funding, he told attendees, “You’re going to see much more aggressive enforcement soon.”

Aguilar said the staff is looking at which cases will have the greatest impact as part of an effort to better marshal its resources. Following criticism that its enforcement efforts were shackled by previous policies, Schapiro moved to act earlier this year to end a controversial pilot penalty program and to expedite the process for getting formal orders of investigation.

Noting that there are “more initiatives in the works,” Aguilar said, “You can expect us to have people on the ground quicker when something comes to our attention.”

When asked about the Commission’s timeline for the U.S. adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards, Aguilar acknowledged that momentum for the effort seems to have slowed.

“The dialogue will continue, but … this will probably be driven much slower,” he told conference goers.

The SEC published a roadmap for IFRS adoption last fall. Comments on the proposal were due April 20. While her predecessor, Christopher Cox, championed the move to IFRS, Schapiro has sounded concerns about the plan and in particular, about the independence of the body that sets international standards. The economic climate is also vastly different.

While he said the current move to convergence should “be fostered and continue,” Aguilar said there should be a focus on “how investors fare under both systems.”

Aguilar expressed enthusiasm for the SEC proposal on shareholder access to the proxy for nominating director candidates.

“To me it’s corporate law 101,” he said. “Shareholders own the corporation. They have the ability to nominate shareholders … but the modern reality of public companies is that those decisions are made in the proxy statement.”

By the time the annual meeting rolls around, he said, “those decisions have already been made and … proxy cards are being tabulated.”

“What we’re doing is providing a disclosure mechanism by which shareholders can exercise the power they already have” under state law, he said.