It was announced earlier this week that an "all-star" commission made up of leading US academics and business leaders, including Harvard Law School and Columbia Business School professors, a representative of the New York Stock Exchange and various business leaders, including the CEOs of international accounting firms PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte and large US businesses, is assembling to consider and recommend changes to the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and other restrictions applicable to companies that raise money in the US capital markets. Although the group is independent, it apparently has the support of the US Treasury Secretary, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, Henry Paulson, who praised the endeavour in a release issued by the new panel.
The committee hopes to submit its recommendations by the end of November 2006 in the hopes that the proposals can be implemented by the new US Congress in 2007. Although it is far from assured that the panel's proposals will be adopted, it is clear that an easing of the regulation of companies that raise money in the US capital markets is an increasing priority for various leaders in the US and that the once rising tide of restrictive legislation may ease for many companies.
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