Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Syms and the Future of Sarbanes-Oxley

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

Labels: Committee on Capital Markets, delisting, pink sheets

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2 Comments:

: I believe the pro-Sox camp needs to 'give it up' if they are using public confidence as one of their reasonings. With the current credit crunch, where were they when these securities were being analyzed for proper risk. The whole downside of the current stock market can be tied to the failure of Sarbanes Oxley.; March 13, 2008
: Yes, where were the regulators and inspectors when the greed ran unchecked? Who will check the unrestrained bullying, collusion, and fraud still perpetrated by the bosses running the business.

Can you imagine that the managers at many of the investment banks that are responsible the sub-prime mess, each made $2BILLION, yes BILLION!! in just bonuses in during the last 2 years?!

"Give it up" for SOX and let the criminal massacre of the masses continue? Yeah, that's the ticket!

The police needs better weapons than the criminals. We need to arm the regulators to stay ahead of the game, not remove them from the scene. Really, what are you smoking?; April 12, 2008