Investment Valuation in India

A SAS 70 report is the service auditor’s report on a service organization’s controls for use by user organizations and their auditors. Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 70, Service Organizations, is a widely recognized auditing standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). The requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 make SAS 70 audit reports even more important to the process of reporting on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting It applies to any service organization that: • Executes transactions and maintains accountability or • Records transactions and processes related data The primary purpose of the SAS 70 report is to provide information about the service organization to auditors who audit the user organization’s financial statements. Benefits of a SAS 70 Report Reduces disruption to service organization operations (single auditor concept) - Otherwise, auditors of all user organizat...

Accounting Impact From an accounting perspective, the focus in the United States has been on: • Convergence • Moving from rules-based standards to principles-based standards • Trending away from recording assets and liabilities at historical cost and moving to fair value. Convergence With the global environment in which companies operate, the FASB and the International Accounting Standards Board ("IASB") have dedicated themselves to improve financial reporting by evaluating the differences between US GAAP and IFRS and reducing those differences where possible. The two bodies are currently in the short-term phase of a longer-term convergence project. The goal of the short-term project is to reduce a variety of differences between US GAAP and IFRS. The short-term projects are those where significant differences do not exist and the Boards believe that they can reach agreement without a major overhaul of the current requirements. In addition to the convergence project, the ...

International Impact of SOX Foreign Private Issuers ("FPIs") registered on US Exchanges must comply with the Act in the same manner in which a US company does, with limited exceptions. The Act introduced additional requirements that many foreign companies did not anticipate when first deciding to enter US capital markets. As a result of these and other environmental changes, the direct and indirect costs of being an SEC registrant have increased and some foreign companies are reconsidering the US capital markets as a place to raise capital. Additionally, the PCAOB regulates the non-US auditors who have clients that are listed on an exchange in the US and registered with the SEC. This makes the non- US audit firms subject to the regulatory requirements, inspection process, and penalties dictated by the PCAOB. In response to the increase compliance costs, in March 2007, the SEC finalized rules allowing Foreign Private Issuers to deregister with the SEC if they meet certain ...

Sarbonex Oxley Act (SOX) or Investor Protection Act 2002 The Act was written by Senator Paul Sarbanes and Congressman Michael Oxley and enacted by the Congress of the United States in response to corporate management, accounting, and reporting scandals. The Act has heightened the role of regulation within the accounting industry and with it the role of the US Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and the newly created Public Company Accounting Oversight Board ("PCAOB") in that regulatory process. The Act represents the biggest change in the US corporate governance and reporting since the federal securities laws were first enacted in 1933 and 1934. The Act has required the SEC to issue more regulations within six months than the SEC had ever issued before in a similar period. Among other things, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act establishes new or enhanced standards for corporate accountability and has increased penalties for corporate wrongdoing for SEC registrants. The S...