Securities and Exchange Commission February 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Securities and Exchange Commission is amending its Rules of Organization and Program Management to delegate its authority to the Director of the Division of Corporation Finance to grant or deny exemptions pursuant to Section 36 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 from the requirement for registrants in connection with an annual meeting of security holders to furnish an annual report to security holders that contains audited financial statements as required by rules under the Exchange Act under certain limited circumstances. The delegation of authority is intended to conserve Commission resources by permitting the staff to review and act on exemptive applications under Section 36 when appropriate.

We are proposing to amend temporary rules that were published on December 21, 2006, in Release No. 33-8760 [71 FR 76580]. These temporary rules require companies that are non-accelerated filers to include in their annual reports, pursuant to rules implementing Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, an attestation report of their independent auditor on internal control over financial reporting for fiscal years ending on or after December 15, 2008. Under the proposed amendments, a non-accelerated filer would be required to provide the auditor's attestation report on internal control over financial reporting in an annual report filed for fiscal years ending on or after December 15, 2009.