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As companies gear up for the 2008 proxy season, they’ll need to beware of several rule amendments that take effect in coming weeks. One notable change taking effect this month is the controversial amendment to federal proxy rules that effectively lets companies block shareholder efforts to put director nominations in the proxy statement. The amendment […]

The magic number for 2008 could be 2011. That year is already emerging as a possible target date to let U.S. companies start filing financial statements using International Financial Reporting Standards. China, India, Canada, and other nations all plan to adopt IFRS in 2011, so while the Securities and Exchange Commission begins debating whether to […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an online tool that lets investors quickly and easily compare compensation packages for executives at some of the largest companies in the United States, in yet another effort to demonstrate the usefulness of XBRL. The Executive Compensation Reader, available at www.sec.gov/xbrl, allows investors to search for a company […]

Government auditors have again rapped the Securities and Exchange Commission on its regulatory knuckles, saying the agency should modernize its technology to improve its oversight of stock exchanges and other self-regulatory organizations. The Government Accountability Office issued a report last month saying that even as SROs refer more inquiries to the SEC for possible investigation, […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved another suite of rule changes to help small companies get faster, easier access to capital. At an open meeting on Dec. 10, the Commission adopted amendments to expand eligibility requirements of Form S-3 and Form F-3. That will allow some companies that don’t meet current public float requirements […]

The new federal contracting rule that requires all companies doing business with the federal government to have an effective ethics and compliance program in place hasn’t even started yet, and already there is clamoring to change it. Federal Acquisition Rule Subpart 3.10, which will come into effect on Dec. 24, compels companies with government contracts […]

From the very beginning of my work getting Viacom’s Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts off the ground in 2003, one thing always struck me as vital to success: setting standards and implementing best practices to achieve an effective, and efficient, compliance program. Many companies struggled to work through limited SOX implementation guidance, with varying degrees of success. […]

In a sure sign that shareholder “say on pay” proposals and other executive compensation issues will again be the big battlegrounds for the 2008 proxy season, the proxy advisory unit of RiskMetrics has updated several of its compensation-related policies—and, notably, adopted a set of five principles to explain when the influential firm will recommend “no” […]

In December 2005, while I was acting chief accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox and I both spoke about reducing the complexity of financial reporting. We weren’t the first to mention this, and we weren’t the last, as the topic has been continually discussed in the two years since. In […]

Fresh from giving foreign companies the choice of filing financial statements according to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or International Financial Reporting Standards, the Securities and Exchange Commission is now trying to figure out how to do the same for domestic businesses. The question ultimately seems to be when, not if, U.S. companies will be […]