RSS feedsUK companies coped well with the first year of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and are even beginning to see some business benefits of adopting the onerous regulation.
Despite this, compliance with the requirements of the Act has still been a costly and time-consuming experience, according to a survey carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers: Sarbanes-Oxley One Year On Evaluating experiences with Sarbanes-Oxley, which sought the views of more than one-third of all UK-based foreign private issuers registered with the SEC.
The research into the 22 FPIs found that respondents were generally quite positive about the adoption of Sarbox, claiming it had led to greater awareness of financial controls and led to wider benefits such as process and control improvements.
Despite the positive aspects, however, more than three-quarters of respondents reported an excessive number of key controls and documentation. More than one-third said they had tested more than 2,000 key business process controls.
“There are clear indications that significant progress is still required,” said Helen Nixseaman, a partner in the risk assurance division of PwC. “In particular, the main opportunity to streamline year-two efforts lies in a greater use of a top-down approach to focus on key controls and in how companies interpret new US guidance. This top-down risk-based approach is proving a real challenge.”
