Audit Committees - Heaven or Hell

3 April 2009 by Mark Freebairn, Colin Wall, Virginia Bottomley

Audit Committees of publicly quoted companies have faced increased expectations in recent years, as a result of both regulatory change and growing shareholder scrutiny.

As all aspects of Governance were reviewed and strengthened, and a new breed of independent Non-Executive Director (NED) emerged, the implications of Audit Committee chairmanship and membership were better appreciated and the daunting nature of the challenge realised.

This was particularly true for the 100+ UK companies with a US listing or American Depository Receipt programme and who thus fell under the sway of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This established onerous new requirements for Audit Committees and the directors who served on them

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