On the one-year anniversary of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the investing public is beginning to see positive results from the broad-based reforms undertaken by public companies, Wall Street, and the regulators, the U.S. Securities Industry Association said Wednesday.
Sarbanes-Oxley and industry-initiated reforms have together laid the foundation for rebuilding investor trust and confidence, according to SIA president Marc Lackritz. “This ‘reform wave’ has gone beyond legislation and the regulatory process to include steps securities firms have taken in rededicating themselves to putting their clients’ interests first.”
Sarbanes-Oxley sought to improve the quality and integrity of the financial information that public companies report by imposing tougher, more comprehensive, “plain English” financial-disclosure obligations and accounting reforms; establishing a new accounting oversight board; and, strengthening the role of the Securities and Exchange Commission through the implementation of significant new regulatory obligations.
These new regulations and the industry’s own efforts, in concert with the self-regulatory organizations and the SEC, have begun to have a “measurable, positive, impact for the benefit of investors,” Lackritz said. “In the securities industry, firms have taken significant steps to improve the quality and integrity of research they provide for clients to evaluate whether a company is a good investment opportunity.”
Lackritz said in the past year, more than 10% of analyst recommendations have been “sells,” as opposed to about 1% a year ago, according to an analysis by Thomson/First Call.
He added that the number of independent research firms has increased, and the number of audit committee meetings has increased by more than a third.
He said that public opinion of corporate America has shown signs of improvement in the past year, citing survey conducted by the Conference Board that found that the percentage of those who are “less trusting” of corporate management declined from 65% in September 2002 to 54% in July of this year.
“The improvement in public opinion of corporate management is undoubtedly the product of many influences, including the market’s recent upturn and other indications that the economy is showing signs of recovery,” Lackritz said. “But the reforms undertaken by Congress, the regulators, and the industry have had a definite positive impact.”