Possible delay of SOX Section 404 for foreign issuers
09 Feb 2005
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that it will host a roundtable discussion this spring (tentatively in April) regarding registrants' and accounting firms' experiences implementing the new internal control reporting requirements under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. At the same time, SEC Chairman William Donaldson indicated that the Commission is considering a delay in applying the internal control reporting requirements to foreign issuers because "many foreign private issuers are facing regulatory and reporting challenges in addition to internal control reporting.
For example, European companies are moving to prepare reports using international financial reporting standards (IFRS) for the first time in 2005". He said that an appropriate delay might be desirable if, "by waiting for foreign private issuers to work through conversion to IFRS, it achieves more effective implementation of the internal control reporting requirements". Here is the Link to the SEC Announcement.