The Securities and Exchange Commission has received an earful from the public about the need for more guidance to companies on how to assess internal controls over financial reporting, even as opinions differ deeply on what form that guidance should take and exactly what issues it should address.
The SEC announced in July that it wanted to give more guidance to companies, struggling with sky-high compliance costs for Sarbanes-Oxley and particularly its Section 404 requirements to attest to the effectiveness of internal controls. But the agency only issued a 28-page concept release, soliciting comment on 35 questions the SEC posed but otherwise offering little insight into what the Commission might ultimately do.
