US prepares to lighten Sarbox burden
Foreign companies floating in US may be exempt from Sarbox for up to a year
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has moved to address the loss of
company listings in the country by attempting to ease the burden of Sarbox on
foreign groups.
The SEC is proposing that international companies listing in the US should be
exempted from the onerous rules for a period of one year.
The proposal is part of a package of measures aimed at easing the burden of
Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 for foreign and smaller businesses, the FT
reports.
‘Our goal here is to make it easier for foreign issuers to do IPOs in the
US,’ said John White, director of the SEC’s division of corporation finance.
‘They will still ultimately have to comply but won’t have to worry about Section
404 compliance as they worry about their IPO.’