SOX compliance can place a significant burden on over-stretched internal resources and SOX testing often falls on Internal Audit Teams already fully engaged in achieving often ambitious third line of defence Internal Audit Annual Plans.

JCBFL can offer general SOX compliance assistance and/or outsourced SOX testing services at extremely competitive rates that won’t break budgets.

SOX Compliance Audits

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was passed by the United States Congress to protect the public from fraudulent or erroneous practices by corporations.

The legislation set new and expanded requirements for all U.S. public companies and their worldwide subsidiaries with the goal to increase transparency in financial reporting and to require formalised systems for internal controls. While SOX only applies to companies that are publicly-traded in the US, SOX extends to foreign companies if they are owned by a US company subject to SOX or their stock is traded on a US stock exchange. Of further note, there are now SOX equivalents in Canada (C-SOX), Japan (J-SOX) and the EU.

Under SOX 404, companies must have a framework to implement internal controls and evaluate their effectiveness and executive management must regularly attest to adequacy of the results. Committee of Sponsoring Organisation (COSO) is a widely adopted integrated Internal Control Framework (ICF) to meet these requirements. The COSO model is summarised graphically below and is detailed at SOX – COSO Model

SOX COMPLIANCE

Our services

  • assistance in implementing, or in developing existing, effective ICFs such as COSO,
  • development of SOX (or equivalent) policies, procedures and controls,
  • assistance with SOX testing (initial control, interim, and year-end) and self-attestation reporting, freeing up internal audit functions to focus on core third line of defence responsibilities,
  • we have extensive experience in implementing ICFs generally, whether within or outside of SOX, and in operating SOX and J-SOX control testing programmes across Lloyd’s Managing Agents.