U.S. federal regulators to reduce companies' financial reporting costs: report

U.S. federal regulators will unveil "significant changes" in the coming weeks to make it less costly for companies to obey rules aimed at ensuring the accuracy of their financial reports, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Regulators "will unveil significant changes" aimed at ensuring internal-control audits are "top down, risk-based and focused on what truly matters" in ensuring the accuracy of corporate financial results, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Christopher Cox.

The changes apply to a provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate-reform law known as Section 404, which requires companies to review their internal controls on financial reporting and then to have those controls tested by outside auditors.

Business groups have pressed the SEC and Congress for such changes, complaining that the way Section 404 is interpreted is overly broad and requires them to spend too much time and money, documenting things that have nothing to do with the integrity of their financial statements.

Critics also said that Section 404 is partly responsible for discouraging foreign companies from listing their shares on U.S. exchanges.

Speaking before the International Organization of Securities Commissioners in London on Thursday, Cox said that the changes "will provide guidance for both companies and their auditors to permit common-sense reliance on past work, and on the work of others."

The goal is to reduce the compliance costs, while increasing the benefits provided by the annual reviews, he added.

Source: Xinhua