As companies await the next moves by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board on amending Section 404 compliance obligations, Commissioner Roel Campos—generally a proponent of keeping tighter Sarbanes-Oxley restrictions to help protect investors—weighed in on the debate on reducing the cost of compliance.
The importance of testing small companies’ internal financial controls shouldn’t be overlooked as the corporate audit rules are revised, Campos reportedly told Reuters.
Campos
While Campos said he supports helping small companies avoid excessive expenses, “It’s important that investor concerns about testing not be abandoned,” he is quoted as saying in a telephone interview.
The SEC and PCAOB have been working together to revise the implementation of Section 404, which has been heavily criticized by businesses as too costly. The PCAOB is expected to propose revisions to its Auditing Standard No. 2 in early December, while the SEC plans to propose management guidance on implementation at its Dec.13 open meeting.
“I would support improving the guidance to auditors ... in particular looking for a way to rationalize auditing costs for small companies,” Campos told Reuters.
SEC Enhances Online Search Capabilities For Investors
The Securities and Exchange Commission unveiled a full-text search tool that enables investors to search the contents of registration statements, annual and quarterly reports, and other filings by companies and mutual funds filed during the last four years via the EDGAR database.
The EDGAR full-text search tool allows users to enter a keyword or conceptual search query, to use Boolean operators and wildcard capabilities, or to search by specific filing type, date range, company name, Central Index Key code or Standard Industrial Classification code.
Cox
The new tool, available on the SEC’s Web site, means investors can access “millions of pages in dozens or even hundreds of company filings all at once” rather than wading through individual filings to find they information they want, said SEC chairman Christopher Cox, calling the new search capability a “milestone” in the SEC’s interactive data initiative.
More than 15,000 public companies and other filers submit 15 million to 18 million pages of filings to the SEC via the EDGAR system each year.
The EDGAR full-text search tool is available on the SEC Web site (see the above box to link to EDGAR’s search tool). The SEC says it plans enhancements based on user feedback. Requests, comments, and suggestions should be sent to textsearch@sec.gov.
Nasdaq, MetricStream Unveil Compliance Portal
As part of its strategy to provide its listed companies with access to a full suite of corporate- governance services, the Nasdaq Stock Market has formed an alliance with MetricStream to provide a portal and online community aimed at helping Nasdaq-listed companies reduce the cost and complexity of compliance.
ComplianceOnline.com, a business unit of MetricStream, currently accessed by more than 1 million users worldwide, features vertical-industry search, content, regulatory alerts, and live and on-demand training resources. The portal offers information specific to hundreds of regulations, standards, and policies related to regulated industries.
The site will be accessible to Nasdaq-listed companies through Nasdaq’s Corporate Services Network and through corporate.complianceonline.com.
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