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Syms and the Future of Sarbanes-Oxley

By Toby Lucich

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has many detractors. They claim that the Act is an over-burdensome piece of regulation, one that has imposed costly and unneeded obligations on issuers. It has driven U.S. companies to exit the public markets and ?go private,? and it has deterred non-U.S. companies from raising capital and listing in the United States.

Proponents of Sarbanes-Oxley counter that these arguments are overheated. Though the benefits of Sarbanes-Oxley are hard to quantify it has increased public confidence in the markets and arguably lessened accounting fraud and numbers ?manipulation.? Even many proponents, though, acknowledge that the act needs some tweaking particularly with respect to the burdens it imposes on smaller companies.

The recent dispute surrounding Syms has provided these proponents some additional anecdotal evidence. On Dec. 21, the discount retailer announced that it would delist its shares from the New York Stock Exchange. Thereafter Syms shares would trade over-the-counter on the pink sheets.

Syms and the Future of Sarbanes-Oxley

Full post as published by inside Sarbanes Oxley on March 12, 2008 (boomark / email).