Nasdaq lobbies for lighter touch to Sarbox rules

A senior director of US stock exchange Nasdaq has admitted that Sarbanes-Oxley has damaged its ability to attract new listings, adding that the exchange was frantically lobbying the US authorities to revise the regulatory rules.

Isabella Schidrich, the managing director of Nasdaq International, said it was surveying clients to assess the impact of the punishing regulations.

‘Sarbox has certainly had an impact on our business. We are surveying clients on the issue and will take those views to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Hopefully we will be able to influence the US authorities,’ she said at an ICAEW corporate finance faculty conference.

Exchanges in the US have lost out to European markets – and the Alternative Investment Market in particular – as companies have moved to avoid the onerous requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley. Last year the volumes and values of European IPOs outstripped US activity for the first time in four years.

In response to this trend,

Nasdaq has been aggressively courting the London Stock Exchange, building up a 24% stake in the London market, which has grown rapidly because of its lighter regulatory model.