arewell, Hotel California. This week’s decision by US regulators to make it easier for foreign companies to escape Sarbanes-Oxley when they delist from a US stock exchange will be welcomed by many companies that had complained the rules meant you could – in the words of the Eagles song – “check out any time you like, but you can never leave”.
But is Sarbox all bad? The US has sustained a barrage of criticism for introducing a law, whose Section 404 provision on internal and auditor checks was seen as one of the most intrusive, and costly, measures ever foisted on corporate executives.