Farewell, Hotel California. This week's decision by US regulators to make it easier for foreign companies to escape Sarbanes-Oxley when they delist from a US stock exchange will be welcomed by many companies that had complained the rules meant you could - in the words of the Eagles song - "check out any time you like, but you can never leave".
But is Sarbox all bad? The US has sustained a barrage of criticism for introducing a law, whose Section 404 provision on internal and auditor checks was seen as one of the most intrusive, and costly, measures ever foisted on corporate executives.
But the criticism has missed an important fact: many of its key provisions have been widely copied around the world.
Ryan LaFond, assistant professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, says: "It's interesting to see how many people are bashing the US yet you see just how many of these reforms are going on all over the globe."
France and Mexico have rules requiring that management assess internal controls, mirroring the first half of 404. Similar Japanese rules are even called "J-Sox".
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