I have long argued on these pages that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as irritating as it may be for corporate compliance and financial reporting executives, achieves its intended goal: to reduce the frequency of financial restatements that harm the investing public. We first saw evidence along those lines in 2007, when the total number of restatements began to fall for companies that were complying with SOX. Back then, however, Corporate America was still screaming about the skyrocketing fees it had to pay to external auditors. Regulators adjusted their rules for SOX compliance so auditors would be less outrageous with their demands (and, consequently, their fees).
