U.S. regulators ease oversight rules

WASHINGTON, May 17 (UPI) -- The high cost of complying with new U.S. rules on internal corporate financial controls has prompted regulators to ease those costs.

According to a recent survey of 217 large U.S. corporations, the new Sarbanes-Oxley Act rules have imposed an average additional cost of $4.4 million per year.

As a result, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and the Securities and Exchange Commission are encouraging auditors to avoid excessively costly checks and verifications, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

The moves affect only U.S. companies, even though the burdens of the rules will also weigh on smaller U.S. and foreign corporations, which must comply by mid-2006.