More than four years since the collapse of Enron, the corporate reporting reforms it triggered show little sign of winding down.
Even in the shock of the energy trader's demise, many observers thought the regulatory dominos would stop falling in a couple of years. They were wrong.
Fresh reporting regimes remain under construction in 2006 and the latest shift in the thinking behind them underlines how regulation is evolving. Less than two years ago, when it had been recognised that reform needed to be internationally coherent, all the talk was of "convergence": delivering rules on accounting, auditing and governance that were identical across the world.
But it has become clear that was too much to hope for. Instead, watchdogs are switching their attention to the more achievable "mutual recognition" of regulations that affect accountants and companies operating in multiple jurisdictions. Rather than looking for absolute homogeneity, they are giving signals they would be happy to say to each other: "Your rules are rigorous and so is your enforcement, so despite differences in the detail, we'll trust in your work as if it was our own."
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