Summit Notebook

     The tide of U.S. government regulation of financial markets is receding after the 2001 Enron scandal sparked a four-year crackdown on accounting fraud, biased Wall Street research and other sharp practices that troubled investors worldwide.
    Business lobbyists are gaining ground in efforts to roll back 2002′s Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) law with public attention focused on the Iraq war, immigration and other issues.
    The new Democrat-controlled Congress promises greater oversight of regulators, but the push back against post-Enron regulations is well under way. A federal court is even considering a lawsuit that seeks to shut down the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) — an audit industry watchdog panel set up as the centerpiece of SOX.
    Questions about the influence of the new Congress and the future direction of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the PCAOB, bank regulators and other agencies will feature at the Reuters Regulation Summit that begins on Monday in Washington.