This is a great press release we thought our readers would enjoy. Here is a snipet:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Chicago, Illinois, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) October 4, 2010 --
Have the Sarbanes-Oxley provisions introduced an overly complex regulatory environment into US financial markets?
LS: SOX definitely added to the complexity of the regulatory environment, but more than anything it really increased the cost of compliance. Certainly in the first three years the requirement for Sec. 404 of the regulation meant it was very expensive to comply and to create and maintain all the necessary documentation and testing that was required under the law. It may have been misunderstood somewhat, but once it was understood I wouldn’t refer to it as overly complex. The primary obstacle was the cost associated with it. That has led to what has been happening over the last two to three years, which is the right sizing of the regulatory effort to comply with SOX.
What are the difficulties and challenges that SOX compliance presents for a company like Walmart?
LS: The challenges and difficulties that we have at Walmart are universal to all companies that have to comply with SOX. Continuing to mature and evolve our SOX compliance efforts to make sure that we’re gaining the most value out of the efforts that we undertake to comply so that we aren’t being too burdensome on the business or incurring too much cost has been an ongoing challenge.
See the rest of the press release here: