Greenspan Darns SOX

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan announced his discomfort over the impact that Sarbanes-Oxley has had on initial public offerings (IPOs) and suggested that it needed to be modified. Greenspan, a proponent of SOX when it was being considered in Congress, liked the improvement in corporate governance but feared that the internal control certification feature was causing too many IPOs to be done in the more relaxed rules of London. A lobbyist stated that it is not likely because of political ramifications in a congressional election year that SOX would be modified. A more hopeful note came from former NYC mayor Rudolph Guilaini, who believed that the London and Tokyo exchanges would soon have legislation similar to Sarbanes-Oxley.