SOX
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was passed in 2002 as a response to a wave of corporate accounting scandals. To measure the effectiveness of SOX over the past ten years, the objectives of the Act must be understood. The text of the Act states that its purpose is "to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures made pursuant to the securities laws, and for other purposes." The accounting scandals of the late 1990s and early 2000s had undermined public confidence in the U.S. securities system, because investors were beginning to feel that the information contained in the financial statements could not be trusted. Congress felt compelled to address this situation by passing Sarbanes-Oxley, which creates more legal controls over the financial statements, creates an enforcement body (the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board) and creates new safeguards.
Small (2011) examines the effectiveness of SOX in improving the quality of internal control reporting. The findings of this study are that the "majority of sample firms and their auditors fail to report existing control weaknesses and instead report that controls are effective." The author notes that internal control reports are useful for investors because they provide advanced warning of the likelihood of misstatements in the financial reports.
Hansen (n.d.), in a study of court cases involving SOX, found that the Act "does not lead to positive governance policies enforced in the courts." This points to an issue with the implementation of the Act, in particular with the ability of the Act to be enforced in the nation's legal system. If the Act is not enforced very well, that might explain Small's finding that companies are unwilling to implement the more stringent components of the law. While a reduction in major corporate accounting scandals since the passage of SOX is certainly beneficial and restores investor faith in the financial system, any law is only as good...
Sarbanes-Oxley Act The objective of this study is to read the guide to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and to: (1) Evaluate the effectiveness of regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley Act over minimizing the corporate fraud and protecting investors make one suggestion for improvement; (2) Given the oversight of the accounting profession by the PCAOB as a result of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, assess the impact on auditing firms and the public accounting professions; (3)
Sarbanes-Oxley Act The Impact Upon the Accounting Profession What it does The Effect of Sarbanes-Oxley on the Accounting Profession New Rules, New Practices The past few years have remarkably changed the face of American business. Corporate scandals involving America's largest companies have shaken the confidence and trust that the public once had in big business. The desire to boost earnings has led some executives to commit crimes, in order to fatten their own pockets, at
Sarbanes-Oxley Act -- it's a good thing In the wake of the horrible corporate scandals of recent years, including Enron and Arthur Anderson, it became readily apparent that some kind of regulation of ethics must be established. Indeed, any scandal in which large numbers of investors lose billions of dollars due to misconduct, is likely to bring action, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is just that. However, although much is said
Sarbanes-Oxley Act on Internet security systems As well as impacting accounting, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act also had a significant impact upon IT security: "Each organization that is affected by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has some level of reliance on automated information systems to process and store the data that is the basis of financial reports. The Act requires these organizations to consider the IT security controls that are in place to promote the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act While most Americans know the names Enron and Worldcom, fewer know the term Sarbanes-Oxley Act; however, despite the alarming impact of the two business disasters, the potential impact of Sarbanes-Oxley stands to exceed the impact of those two bankruptcies many times over. While Enron and Worldcom each held a claim to 'biggest' or 'most' in some aspect of global business and also in various aspects of global business disaster,
Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOA) was put into law in 2002 following the revelations that Enron (and Enron's accountancy Arthur Anderson), WorldCom, and other corporations were using blatantly corrupt practices in accounting and causing huge losses for stakeholders in those firms. Moreover, the U.S. Congress could not simply stand by and allow companies to use unethical and illegal practices to scam huge sums of money for corporate executives while stripping the IRAs
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now