**GAO-03-511**                      Published: Mar 17, 2003. Publicly Released: Mar 17, 2003.                  

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## Highlights

In the wake of a series of recent corporate scandals and bankruptcies, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act mandated that GAO study the involvement of investment banks with two companies, Enron and Global Crossing. In this report, the term "investment bank" includes not only securities firms but also those bank holding companies with securities affiliated or business divisions that assist clients in obtaining funds to finance investment projects. Since the activities identified in this report are the subject of ongoing and extensive investigations and litigation by competent authorities, it is not our role to determine the propriety of any of the parties' activities. To help the Congress better understand the activities of investment banks with respect to these companies we agreed to provide publicly available information on the roles investment banks played in designing, executing, and participating in certain structured finance transactions, investment banks' and federal regulators' oversight of these transactions, and the role that the banks' research analysts played with Enron and Global Crossing.

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## Topics

Auditing and Financial Management

Accounting standardsFinancial managementInternal controlsInvestment companiesLending institutionsRisk managementBanking lawBanking regulationAccounting proceduresInvestment banks