If someone tells you they can predict the likelihood that your company will face a securities-related class action lawsuit over the next year, should you believe it? Los Angeles-based Audit Integrity says it can do just that. The company claims it has developed a model that it says can predict securities-related class action lawsuits of […]
Melissa Klein Aguilar
Posted inBoards & Shareholders
Firm Hopes SEC Letter Opens Up Proxy Delivery Market
Will an interpretive letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission giving banks and brokers the okay to designate more than one agent to fulfill their proxy delivery obligations break ADP’s monopoly on the distribution of proxy material? Swingvote certainly hopes so. The Atlanta-based newcomer to the proxy voting service marketplace requested the Commission’s advice on […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Guidance For Internal Auditors Making 404 Opinions
With the advent of new financial reporting legislation and regulations—namely, the now-infamous Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley—companies may be calling more frequently on internal auditors to issue opinions on the adequacy of internal controls. That’s right: internal auditors. While SOX 404 requires external auditors to sign off on management’s assessment of the effectiveness of their internal […]
Posted inInternal Controls
SEC Advisory Committee On Smaller Public Cos. to Meet
The advisory committee tasked with studying the impact of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 on smaller public companies will meet next month in Chicago to hear from some of those entities about the costs and benefits associated with the Act, and to consider whether to further extend the compliance date of Section 404. Thyen James […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Panel Touts SOX Benefits; Top Ten Control Improvements
As corporate America marked the third anniversary of the passage of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, a group of leaders from the business community gathered in Washington D.C., to discuss an issue that’s been top of mind for public companies: whether the benefits of the sweeping legislation outweigh the hefty costs associated with compliance. The […]
Posted inInternal Controls
SOX 404 Deficiencies Preceded By “Effective” 302 Reports
The fact that hundreds of companies came clean about potential internal control problems as the Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 deadline approached isn’t terribly surprising. What is surprising, says one researcher who recently analyzed the disclosures, is that most of those companies had said not too long before that their internal controls were effective. Among 366 companies […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
As Expensing Takes Hold, Companies Curb Option Grants
Faced with the reality of counting employee stock options as an expense, companies are tinkering with their equity compensation plans by slashing option grants and narrowing the pool of employees eligible to participate. That’s according to a Deloitte & Touche survey of more than 340 companies, in which more than 75 percent of respondents have […]
Posted inBoards & Shareholders
ISS Consolidates Proxy Voting Power With IRRC Deal
Rockville, Md.-based Institutional Shareholder Services has solidified its position as the industry’s dominant proxy advisory firm with the purchase of the commercial business of its rival, Washington, D.C.-based Investor Responsibility Research Center. ISS agreed to buy the commercial proxy voting, research and screening business of IRRC in a cash deal valued in excess of $10 […]
Posted inTechnology
Non-Profit To Develop Whistleblower Hotline Standards
Thanks to Sarbanes-Oxley, whistleblower hotlines are a hot topic for public companies. But what’s the best way to manage a hotline? And how can a company measure whether its hotline is effective? A coalition of governance experts has taken the first step toward answering those questions. The non-profit Open Compliance and Ethics Group, which recently […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Should Boards Be Told Of PCAOB Auditor Probes?
The inadvertent disclosure of an investigation by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board into Deloitte & Touche’s 2003 audit of truck maker Navistar International Corp. raised eyebrows recently as the first formal probe of a Big Four firm by the Board. But the probe should be of interest to public companies for another reason: It […]