Major U.S. CEOs complained about regulatory burdens in the post-Enron environment at a high-profile conference on regulation and the legal system, while an investor advocate warned that business leaders should not lose sight of what matters to investors, Reuters reported.

“We can’t forget where we were five years ago,” Ann Yerger, executive director of the Council of Institutional Investors, said at the conference hosted by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. “There was a remarkable crisis of confidence … I fear we’re sort of losing touch with that period of time.”

Yerger was on a panel at the conference with Paulson, billionaire investor Warren Buffett, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox and others. Vice President Dick Cheney spoke to conference participants on Monday night.

At the conference, Yerger said Enron-era scandals revealed pervasive failures in boardrooms and among auditors.

The 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley accounting and corporate governance reforms were targeted at such problems, she said, expressing concern about the scope of recent complaints. Corporate leaders have been trying to build support for claims that excessive regulation and litigation are making American capital markets less competitive internationally.