A 134-page McKinsey report released by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and US Senator Charles Schumer recommends more reforms to Sarbanes-Oxley. But fixing Sarbanes-Oxley won’t stop New York losing business because there are many other forces at work.
The move to rewrite Sarbanes-Oxley keeps gaining momentum with the release of the Hank Paulson-backed Interim Report of the Committee for Capital Markets Regulation. Recommendations include replacing shareholder class actions with arbitration and reducing the scope for criminal enforcement against companies.
Silicon Valley venture capitalists will finally see Sarbanes-Oxley being wound back. They have been pushing politicians and regulators hard to water down the legislation. And the new House majority leader Nancy Pelosi is well-placed because she actually received more campaign money this year from venture capital outfit Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers than she got from the traditional Democrat soul-mates in the US union movement
Is SOX good for business? Critics say its costly, over-taxing and a complete waste of time. The first two claims about Sarbanes-Oxley from smaller companies are not completely without foundation. A new study from MIT Sloan School of Management has found that firms with sound internal controls have a lower cost of capital. In other words, SOX might be good for business
