Sarbanes-Oxley costs dropped a whopping 41% with outside audit spending related to 404 compliance down 5.4%. But a spike in external audit fees resulted in an overall increase in all accounting costs for the year

A phased implementation of XBRL is imminent, and the largest U.S. companies may take the plunge first

Decoding the 25,000 pages of FASB rulings is not a task for the faint of heart. But plans to distill the information into a single-source Web-based document should make the job a lot easier

Financial Executives International (FEI) is urging the U.S. Department of Treasury to require U.S. auditing firms, like their European counterparts, to issue online transparency reports detailing important financial information and governance policies

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has approved two proposals designed to clarify possible conflicts of interest between a public auditing firm and a potential client by increasing transparency

Although many companies will not face proxy votes related to the subprime credit crunch, experts suspect that senior managements and boards will be confronted by a much feistier group of investors

When it comes to executive pay, it is beginning to seem like no amount of rules or regulations will be enough to prevent determined senior executives from paying themselves more than enough

If investors can’t depend on credit ratings, then why have them?

The stakes just got higher for financial executives ensnared in the options backdating investigation. Former SafeNet CFO Carole Argo was sentenced to six months in prison and fined $1 million.

For two decades, without much fanfare, Colgate-Palmolive Co. has been evolving its governance practices, constantly making changes and updating policies in response to shareholder's wishes and current trends

Market consolidation from Dubai to Denmark may mean more liquidity and less volatility

The clamor may be dying down following the latest Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) guidance, but debate over what many see as excessively complex and costly U.S. financial reporting procedures persists in less boisterous tones.

New FASB rules on fair value accounting are expected to lead to volatility and restatements in the area of derivatives

Environmentalists may once have struggled to be heard, but now companies are agreeing to climate change proposals without a fight

The effort to transform governance and risk compliance burdens into business value may have taken a giant leap forward.

The news that cartesis will offer Bwise’s governance, risk and compliance software in the Cartesis 10 BPM suite is one more sign that finding the right partner in tech has become a key competitive edge

Do the equity markets reward good governance practices with higher valuations? Two new studies suggest there is a link, but that some best practice attributes carry more weight with investors than others

Oracle Corp. already offers tools that help companies comply with any number of regulations, in areas ranging from identity management to audit and IT compliance.