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Michael Oxley, co-author of a law, passed by the US Congress, which regulates public companies’ accounting and protects investors, known as SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley), visited BM&F with a delegation from NASDAQ. The group met the Exchange’s Chairman, Manoel Felix Cintra Neto, CEO, Edemir Pinto, and directors.
Mr. Oxley, who is also NASDAQ’s vice-chairman, participated in BM&F’s Special Interviews, available online (on 07/16/07) and published in the Exchange’s Resenha magazine. During the interview, Mr. Oxley stated that SOX has helped improve market standards, by increasing the value of listed companies.
A member of the US House of Representatives (R-OH), who together with former Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), implemented the act that reformed accounting laws in the US in 2002, creating tough punishment after the accounting scandals that shook the American market, Mr. Oxley said that he doesn’t believe in loosening the current legislation.
According to Mr. Oxley, despite the criticism that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may be forcing American financial centers to move elsewhere in the world, there is no such move in sight. In his opinion, the reaction to the law has been quite de opposite, allowing a greater development of US markets. As an example, he stated the evolution of the Dow Jones Index from 2002, when the law was passed, to its current high today.
For Mr. Oxley, what has occurred was not a shift from American exchanges with the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, but a growth of international financial centers. This movement will probably go on, with the globalization of the markets and the current trend of mergers and acquisitions between exchanges.
Mr. Oxley explained that the American market regulators were able to adapt the legislation to fit companies of all sizes. “There is no sense in demanding the same thing from a small company that we expect from General Electric, for instance”, he said.
