There are only 8 weeks for The Executive Briefing on EU directives and Copenhagen IT Compliance Conference 2008. There is much excitement and buzz surrounding the EU directives that together form the platform of ‘EuroSox’ Governance, Risk and Compliance issues, not forgetting the entire field of IT issues. Therefore we are gearing up for an incredibly thought provoking and successful conference.

Please make sure you register your place by Monday 10th march 2008 to receive a complimentary book on the subject of Governance, Risk and Compliance.

EuroSox is the EU’s equivalent of the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act, presents a heavy compliance burden. However the European Union’s corporate governance directives are in danger of being lost in translation, given the 25 different language versions into which they must be translated for member state implementation.

Typically The Delaware Chancery Court of USA, is quite business-friendly; however recent verdicts indicate that corporate governance games and board/management relations will not be tolerated.

Regulation is not amongst the top 10 concerns of CFOs. Worries about consumer spending are weighing on finance chiefs.

As anticipated, the SEC approved Auditing Standard No. 5 (AS5), intended to make Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 audits more efficient, risk-based, and scalable to company size and complexity.

Our evaluation of the humiliating Société Générale (SocGen) finance scandal reveals the lapse of several Internal Controls. In the forthcoming article we focus on the following

• IT-Security (e.g. sluggish use of passwords)
• Backlogs and delays in settling trades
• Systems and procedures were not ‘at par’ to monitor growing volumes
• Lack of segregation of duties and probably lack of automated controls

We have so much on our GRC plate for this and the next newsletter that we will differ the 'review and study of Section 404 costs and benefits' until a future date. If you are very interested to judge whether your improvements internal controls are worth the bother, send us an email.