The Cost of Transparency

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act grabbed corporate America by its lapels and shook it, but after a few years of understanding what SOX is all about, U.S. insurers are returning much of their compliance attention to state regulators.

Clearly, SOX was important in the world of financial reporting for compliance, states Ellen Walsh, partner in the risk and regulatory practice of Pricewaterhouse-Coopers. SOX helped shed light on the importance of having a solid compliance program across the business, particularly for large life insurance companies that are beholden to a number of different regulators.