Cost of compliance top concern in reforms.

• Author: Heffes, Ellen M.
• Position: COMPLIANCE - Survey - Brief article

Executives are concerned that an increase in government intervention coupled with higher compliance costs will hurt business. Despite this growing concern, half of the respondents to a recent KPMG Regulatory Reform Survey say that such changes are inevitable and may offer a net positive in the future.

Of the 126 C-suite executives polled, who were primarily from Fortune 1000 companies, nearly 94 percent expressed a level of concern about the impact that reform legislation could have on their business' bottom line.

Among the issues of highest concern:

* Cost of compliance: 68 percent

* Government intervention in business: 52 percent

* Difficult planning while awaiting reform passage: 42 percent.

Additionally, while executives expect...