Audits are performed to provide protection against the provision of false information to
the market influencing share price. However, problems arise as markets are inherently
unstable and fluctuate and they do not, therefore, act like principals. As a result, US
regulators have developed a critical role in corporate relationships in the US, e.g. the
introduction of the SEC under the 1934 Securities Act to deal with the regulation of
securities and the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act which established the Public Company
Accounting Oversight Board