SEC pulls rank over Sox differences

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may exert its authority over the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, if regulators cannot settle their differences on revising the Sarbanes-Oxley (Sox) Act, says the Herald Tribune.

Sox has been criticised by businesses, which say compliance harms competitiveness. The committee on capital markets regulation reported that companies spent an average of $4.36 million each, adhering to Sarbanes-Oxley in 2004, the year in which the regulation was implemented.

The SEC held a public meeting this month to align efforts by the commission and the accounting board on Sarbanes-Oxley to ensure both parties were on the same page in terms of meeting the goals set out by the SEC.

Sec Servizi IT, an outsourcing consortium to the Italian banking and financial market, has gone live with a Microsoft data warehouse solution, reports AssoDigitale.

This is in response to a deadline set by the Bank of Italy to ensure compliance with the Basel II. "We are extremely delighted with the results of this project, and we are already looking at new ways to apply the data warehouse solution and bring further benefits to our customers," said Luciano Gitti, CEO of Sec Servizi.

"More than ever we are witnessing exciting times for the European financial market, with technology and regulations changing the landscape and promoting cross-border operations and expansions," says Anders Abrahamsson, MD for Microsoft EMEA Financial Services Industry.

World Bank governance indicators place Russia near the bottom of the pile, when it is compared with countries with similar credit ratings, reports the St Petersburg Times.

In a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, among the main concerns on the part of Western executives include the lack of corporate governance, lack of transparency and poor business ethics. Only 10% of respondents felt Russian companies were world-class competitors.

However, during a series of roundtables in Moscow, entitled "Corporate governance in practice", organised by the International Business Leaders Forum, and supported by Baker & McKenzie, Ernst & Young and KPMG, there was evidence that good business practices have gone further and deeper within Russian companies than might have been expected.