UK plc - the 51st state?
The deadline for submitting sworn statements to the Securities & Exchange Commission attesting to the integrity of company accounts has come and gone.
The CFOs and CEOs of more than 900 companies were involved and only 16 seemed to have missed the boat. For them, extensions have been agreed anyway. Despite much lobbying and effort to arrange exemptions from this, US regulation several UK executives of companies listed here and in the US will have to swear their accounts are true and honest.
And while it seems to have gone without a hitch, there remains the question of the regulatory reach of the US. While it affects UK companies, law-makers, politicians and other interested parties have had no opportunity to debate or consult on these measures. Indeed, politically the US regulators are accountable to no-one in the UK, or any other country.
What is to be done is a difficult question. UK plc must be on its guard. UK corporate governance is more robust than in many other countries. We should be careful we are not struck by every regulatory whim from across the Atlantic and offer resistance where necessary.