Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said small companies won't get an exemption from Sarbanes-Oxley rules requiring independent auditors to certify they're complying with securities laws.
An SEC advisory panel recommended in December that only the largest 20 percent of public companies be required to have outside accountants certify their systems of protecting assets, reporting financial information and complying with regulations. The panel was set up to address concerns about costs of complying with the rules.
Cox, in his first public comments on the issue, on Monday ruled out a full exemption for small companies from the Sarbanes-Oxley certification rules, known as Section 404. "Our emphasis is on making 404 work and implementing it in a cost-effective and investor-protected way, rather than simply waiving it," Cox told reporters after a speech to a Stanford Law School forum on corporate governance in Washington, D.C.
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