A committee of prominent academics and financiers endorsed by US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt "a more reasonable" standard on internal controls and financial statements for listed companies and move to a risk-based regulatory process.

The report from the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation comes days after Paulson said he will take aim at constrictive accounting and governance rules and plans to hold a conference in early 2007 as part of his push to reform regulation of the country's capital markets.