Financial firms that fall foul of the U.K’s lead regulator face a three-fold increase in fines under its plan to get tougher with wrongdoers. The Financial Services Authority (FSA), which said recently it wanted firms to be more frightened by its enforcement powers, said its proposed new penalty regime reflected its determination to change behavior. […]
Internal Controls
Posted inInternal Controls
New COSO Chairman Details Committee’s Goals
In the latest of our occasional conversations with compliance executives, regulators, and other voices in the governance world, Compliance Week recently caught up with David Landsittel, the new chairman of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations. Landsittel, a long-time veteran of auditing firm Arthur Andersen, currently serves as a consultant to accounting firms and others on […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Report IDs Material Weaknesses in ICFR Among Insurers
Executives at non-public insurance companies preparing to comply with the industry’s version of Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 may be able to learn something from their pubic-company counterparts. A new report published by internal controls consulting firm Lord & Benoit and based on data from Audit Analytics identifies the material weaknesses in internal controls over financial reporting […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Overseeing Subsidiaries’ Internal Controls for SOX
At the request of subscribers, Compliance Week offers a Remediation Center, in which readers can submit questions—anonymously—to securities and accounting experts. Compliance Week’s editors will review all questions and then submit them—confidentially, of course—to specialists who can address the issues. The questions and responses will then be reprinted in a future edition of Compliance Week. […]
Posted inInternal Controls
SOX Compliance in the Tech Sector
A KPMG survey of technology companies has found that the cost of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance is falling, the number of key controls shrinking, and, most surprisingly, the number of automated controls declining as well. The third annual report, surveying controllers, compliance managers, and chief audit executives from 41 electronics and software businesses, does not purport to […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Toy Story: Industry Mounts Compliance Campaign
Earlier this year, the toy industry knew it had a big problem: tough new product-safety rules barreling down the regulatory turnpike, and most toy businesses too small to manage compliance with those rules well. So, like the band of heroes in Pixar’s animated film “Toy Story,” the businesses united to answer a common challenge. Their […]
Posted inInternal Controls
SEC’s Aguilar on 404, IFRS Proxy Access, More
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 […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Managing IT Controls for SOX Compliance
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is considered by many to be the road to redemption for the past sins of Enron, WorldCom, and other corporate players who subverted the rules of business by using financial engineering to inflate the performance of their businesses. Advocates for SOX consider this legislation an approach to ensure corporate responsibility for financial […]
