SEC and PCAOB Attempt to Cut Costs and Improve Auditor Efficiency of
Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Yesterday SEMI submitted
comments to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the
Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) on Section 404 of the
Sarbanes- Oxley Act.
In December, the SEC and PCAOB released potentially significant changes
to Section 404 guidance for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and the
corresponding auditing standard with an open comment period through
February 26. Earlier this month, SEMI conducted an industry wide survey on
Sarbanes-Oxley with the Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA). The survey
results were incorporated into a joint comment letter from SEMI and FSA. To
view the letter, please visit:
HTTP://content.semi.org/cms/groups/public/documents/advocacy/p041167.pdf
SEMI's members that are registered with the SEC make up an $18 billion
dollar sector of the U.S. economy and are highly exposed to the competitive
consequences of any cost imposed by U.S. capital markets regulation that
does not have a commensurate benefit to their customers or their
shareholders.
"Our member companies are committed to maintaining internal controls
that provide reasonable assurance that the company has effective and
efficient operations and reliable financial reports. SEMI is told that the
SOX 404 process is too much about assurance and not enough about
reasonable, cost- effective assurance," said Victoria Hadfield, president
of SEMI North America. "SEMI believes that the Proposed SEC Guidance and
the PCAOB's recommendations for improving AS-5 must restore the concept of
'reasonableness' to the overall Sarbanes-Oxley compliance process.
Furthermore, the new rules need to encourage management and the auditors to
work together to eliminate duplicative, costly, and wasteful evaluations."
SEMI is a global industry association serving companies that provide
equipment, materials and services used to manufacture semiconductors,
displays, nano-scaled structures, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)
and related technologies. SEMI maintains offices in Austin, Beijing,
Brussels, Hsinchu, Moscow, San Jose (Calif.), Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore,
Tokyo and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit: http://www.semi.org.
SOURCE SEMI
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Related links:
http://www.semi.org/
CONTACT:
Ken Schramko, +1-202-289-0440, or
kschramko@semi.org, or Scott Smith, +1-408-943-7957, or
ssmith@semi.org, both of SEMI
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