Yesterday evening (Washington time), the US SEC announced that it is extending for most "foreign private issuers" the deadline for compliance with the internal controls reporting and certification process mandated by Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 to July 15, 2006. The previous deadline was July 15, 2005. Each foreign private issuer will now be required to begin to comply with the internal control over financial reporting requirements in its annual report on Form 20-F for its first fiscal year ending after July 31, 2006. (Foreign private issuers who voluntarily file their annual reports on Form 10-K, such as issuers with US-registered high-yield notes, are still required to start making their internal controls certifications this year.)
Donald T. Nicolaisen, the SEC’s Chief Accountant, stated that he hoped the extension would “provide additional time for [foreign private] issuers to take a good hard look at their internal controls”. Alan A. Beller, Director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, also stressed that foreign private issuers “should use the extension not to delay but to improve the quality of their efforts”.
Notably, the extension does not apply to other Sarbanes-Oxley compliance requirements. In particular, the deadline for compliance with the new audit committee regulations remains July 31, 2005.