After the passage of the European Union’s 8th Company Law Directive on Statutory Audit (Directive 2006/43/EC),

Non-European & European companies listed in any country of the EU/EEA must comply with the 8th Company Law Directive before 29 June 2008.

The 8th Company Law Directive is considered the European post Sarbanes-Oxley Act. And, like in the US SOX, there are extremely important extraterritorial consequences.

The Offshore Financial Centers (OFCs) for example must immediately enact legislation to prove that they have an “equivalent level of regulation”, to protect their auditors that audit offshore companies with EU listings from being subject to a tough European oversight regime. Otherwise, auditors and audit firms from ‘third countries’ have to be registered in the EU and to be subject to oversight, quality assurance and sanctions.

Companies listed in EU are directly affected. From the changes in the audit committee and the role of the board of directors to the new internal controls requirements, professionals in EU listed companies will face the same or similar challenges that their American colleagues are facing having to comply with the US SOX. The European SOX (E-SOX) and the Japanese SOX (J-SOX) which will definitely create a new flat world in the financial markets.

Intelligence Secured offers European SOX (E-SOX) and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) training courses globally, in addition to in-house training in any location upon request.