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Sarbanes-Oxley News & Developments
Record Keepers Bane Is Tech Sectors BoonUncle Sam is cracking down.
> > .The SEC is fining brokers who do not keep close-enough track of their records.
.The new Sarbanes-Oxley Acr demands that companies establish a confidential system for employees to report malfeasance.
.The Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act requires that electronic patient records be standardized in an easy-to-transfer format.
For much of U.S. business, these and other elements of Washingtons new regulatory requirements translate into costly misery. But for the beleaguered high-tech sector, there is a silver lining: a new selling opportunity.
Purveyors of computors and software are offering new products tailored to regulatory compliance. Because of many of the new enforcement actions relate to record-keeping, the biggest beneficiaries may be data-storage vendors-including EMC Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., and Hitachi LTD.
Sarbanes-Oxley Chief Executive David Chiders says only a complaint system operated by a third-party vendor will be trusted by employees worried about reprisals. Its hard to get employees to believe that a system wholly owned and operated by management is anonymous and confidential.
Source: Wall Street Journal article dated April 24, 2003 by Charles Forelle
Published:2003-04-29
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