The SEC proposed tripling the market cap threshold for mandatory internal controls audits from $700 million to $2 billion, which would exempt approximately 1,700 public companies from the 404(b) attestation requirement of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed after the Enron and WorldCom scandals in the early 2000s. This change would eliminate an estimated $430 million in annual revenue for US accounting firms, particularly the Big Four: EY, Deloitte, PwC, and KPMG. The affected companies collectively paid $3.8 billion in total audit fees in the prior year. The proposal is part of a broader deregulatory agenda under the Trump administration, which has systematically moved to reduce compliance burdens across public markets.
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