Though the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has said it would not attempt to impose Sarbanes-Oxley compliance abroad, Euronext and the New York Stock Exchange aren’t taking any chances. Financial News reports that in their merger agreement, the two exchanges want to include a clause that would kill a deal if there was any attempt to force overseas companies to comply with SOX. The move may be more symbolic than anything else. “This is likely to be political signaling rather than a firm legal guarantee,” Benn Steil of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations told FN. “It is exceptionally hard to see how and when such a clause would be triggered.”
