Congress enacted Sarbanes-Oxley in the aftermath of a substantial number of high-profile accounting scandals that started to emerge in 2001. The stated objective of Sarbanes-Oxley is to restore the public’s confidence in corporate governance. A provision of that law requires CEOs and CFOs of publicly-traded corporations to attest that their companies have "proper internal controls."

In what is perceived as a compromise between Board members, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has voted to postpone implementation of its rules mandating expensing of stock options.