American
Business
Conference A Coalition of Growth Companies
| For Immediate Release: |
|
Contact: John Endean |
| February 8, 2005 |
|
(202) 822-9300 |
CEOs Applaud SEC/PCAOB Initiative on Sarbanes-Oxley
The members of the American Business Conference (ABC), CEOs of fast-growing, midsize American companies, today applauded the announcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the Commission will hold a roundtable on the implementation of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Section 404 deals with internal control reporting requirements.
John Endean, ABC's president, said:
"ABC members were very pleased and gratified by the willingness of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to seek information about the difficulties inherent in complying with Section 404.
Currently, compliance costs, particularly for midsize and small companies, have been, in our view, unnecessarily high and the process itself unnecessarily duplicative. At the same time, ABC members believe that the emphasis upon effective internal controls is justified and desirable. We have no interest in rewriting, much less eliminating, Section 404. Our goal is to balance the undoubted benefits of the law with its compliance cost.
ABC has full confidence in the willingness and ability of the SEC and the PCAOB to institute a process of continuous improvement in their enforcement of Section 404. Our members will do everything we can to assist both regulatory bodies in fulfilling that mission."
The American Business Conference is a Washington-based coalition of chief executives of fast-growing midsize American companies.
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