Seismic accounting scandals like the ones that sank Enron and WorldCom in the early 2000s have, happily, been scarce in recent years. But they may well resurface if elements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the law created to curtail accounting fraud, are rolled back as some corporate executives are urging.

Tom Farley, president of the NYSE Group, which operates the New York Stock Exchange, is among those leading the charge. In congressional testimony in July, he criticized the law’s provision requiring auditors of publicly held companies to report on and attest to management’s assessment of internal controls on financial reporting. The requirement is costly and burdensome to companies, Mr. Farley said, and helps to explain why the number of public corporations in the United States is declining.

He urged lawmakers to review the requirement because markets had evolved since it became law.

Mr. Farley’s comments notwithstanding, it seems smart to have an outside auditor check on management’s oversight of financial reporting. If a company does not have solid controls in place, how can investors trust its financial reports?

But investors do not seem to be a concern for Mr. Farley, who was speaking about the law (known as SOX) as an advocate for the big companies that list their shares on the New York Stock Exchange. “Designing, implementing and maintaining complex systems required to satisfy SOX’s internal controls over financial reporting requirements can command millions of dollars in outside consultant, legal and auditing fees, in addition to other internal costs,” he said.