A recent survey by the Business Roundtable shows that almost all of those polled are sure that their expenses on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act will not increase in 2006. According to experts at InfoWatch, this demonstrates that large businesses have, for the first time in many years, learnt to manage their regulatory spending and risks.
The Business Roundtable, an influential organization that unites some of the most important businessmen in the U.S., has published its fourth annual corporate governance survey. One of the key findings that analysts pointed to was the fact that the costs of complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) have stabilized over the last year.
The amount of companies estimating the cost of compliance to be over $10 million has fallen to 40% (compared to 47% the previous year). Almost all those surveyed (94%) expect the cost of SOX compliance to either remain the same (42%) or decrease (52%) in 2006.
“The Business Roundtable traditionally unites huge corporations where millions of people work, so the survey reflects the views of America's biggest businesses. It is of primary importance for this category of firm to stabilize their expenses on SOX compliance because for them the slightest fluctuation is linked to the movement of millions of dollars," says Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch.
“The fact that those corporations have been able to stabilize their expenses suggests that they have either learnt to manage their regulatory spending and risks, or will do so in the very near future."
The full text of the survey's findings can be viewed at the Business Roundtable's official site.
Source: Business Roundtable
