The committee also called for the Auditor General to be allowed the "unfettered power" to audit the Financial Services Authority's work, given the billions of pounds of taxpayers' money that was now tied up in the banking system.
But all the firms quickly saw that they could now charge a lot more for the audit itself given the new requirement for a separate opinion on internal controls over financial reporting and the amount of work some sloppy companies had to do to document, test, and confirm internal controls.
They must now personally sign off on financial reports, comply with Sarbanes-Oxley's requirements for internal monitoring, work with the board's audit committee and the company's internal auditors.