After the events occurred in the US market (Collapse and bankruptcy of Enron and WorldCom, among others), the effect of which are still being felt in US economy. It seemed evident that the information regarding financial statements are ever more important for investors and regulatory agencies.
In response to this mayor corporate and accounting scandals, and as an attempt to restore confidence in the market, in July of 2002, US congress and President Bush signed into law the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This Act, requires executives, boards of directors and auditors to take precise measures to bring about greater corporate accountability and transparency.
The following tables will illustrate the costs and benefits of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on: Investors, Companies (especially CEOs and senior managers), Accounting (CPA) firms, and Government.
Please refer to tables 1 and 2 in the following pages. References are posted at the end of the document
TABLE 1 - COSTS AND BENEFITS FOR EACH ACTOR
COSTS BENEFITS
Investors Initial Costs incurred by companies for the compliance of the regulations will go to the investors [Ref 9] More efficient transmission, dissemination, analysis, storage and retrieval of insider ownership and transaction information [Ref. 1]
More time will be required to go through all the information that will be disclose by companies [Ref 9] Improve quality and transparency in financial reporting [Ref. 1]
CEO/CFO Certifications. rules requiring principal executive and financial officers of every public company to certify to the financial and other information contained in th ...