For the third time, a federal court has sent rules governing the mutual fund industry back to the Securities and Exchange Commission for further reflection on the costs of the changes.

A survey of 120 chief financial officers and comptrollers found that more than 80 percent of the executives are in favor of rules that would make it harder for bankrupt companies to turn over pension obligations to the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corp.

The Internal Revenue Service heard from a variety of groups on a proposed rule change that the agency says would strengthen taxpayer control over tax information in the hands of tax preparers or tax software companies.

In remarks to reporters after a speech in Washington, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said that small companies aren't likely to receive any exemptions from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Federal regulators released a consumer research study that offers suggestions for consumer-friendly financial privacy notices.

In a handshake across the sea, the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board have agreed to continue their efforts to converge American and international standards.And if all goes well, at some point in the next few years, the Securities and Exchange Commission may decide that the international and American standards are close enough to allow companies reporting under international standards to register on U.S. stock markets without reconciling their financial statements to U.S. standards.

Congress has begun to focus in on reforms for the nation's health care tax policy - a move that could impact hundreds of billions of dollars a year in cherished tax breaks for individuals and employers.That worm can spilled open on Capitol Hill as the Senate Finance Committee launched hearings into the single largest tax expenditure in the tax code - the $200 billion a year in income and payroll tax incentives paid to encourage employers to offer health insurance coverage to their workers.