Compliance and Regulatory Issues around Sarbanes-Oxley

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has established a new paradigm for corporate responsibility, accountability, transparency, and behavior. Consequently, senior management and boards of directors of many entertainment and media companies are feeling increasing pressure to ensure they have embedded processes in their organisations to help protect against incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading public disclosures. Will their reporting and compliance capabilities be up to the task?

Apparently not. According to the PwC Management Barometer Survey, fewer than half of U.S. and European multinationals have a clear view of the value derived from their compliance spending, despite a projected increase in spend by an average of 23% over the next year to two years. "Companies are spending significant sums of money — even more than they realise — in order to improve compliance effectiveness and efficiency, but executives are finding that they are not receiving the return on investment they expected," says Dan DiFilippo, a leader of PwC’s Governance, Risk and Compliance practice.

How PwC can help you

Clearly, many companies will need a professional adviser on matters related to the full range of corporate responsibility issues — from financial disclosure to forensic services to corporate fraud. Through PwC’s Sarbanes-Oxley compliance services, internal audit, and a broad range of other assurance services, we help clients achieve;

Increased reliability and transparency of financial statements; more efficient allocation of capital; simplification and standardisation of policies and processes; a shift from manual to automated controls; an enhanced control environment and "tone at the top"; improved merger and acquisition due diligence; andavailability of funding and resources to improve internal control over financial reporting.