Half of the largest public companies reported their external audit costs to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley rose again in 2017, driven largely by persistent audit regulatory pressure, increased merger and acquisition activity, and adoption of new accounting standards.
That’s the finding of the latest annual Protiviti survey exploring Sarbanes-Oxley compliance activity and costs. Based on a poll in early 2018 of more than 1,000 finance and internal audit executives at public companies, 50 percent of large accelerated filers saw their SOX-related external costs rise last year, while 44 percent said costs held steady; only 6 percent reported a decrease in costs.
