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Credit Crisis

Report Shakes Up U.K. Financial Sector Governance

Global Glimpses November 30, 2009

0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false U.K financial firms will have to set up board-level risk committees and disclose more information about the salaries of high earners following the completion of a government-commissioned review of corporate governance in the financial sector. The final report from...

Briefing Compares G20 Exec Pay Rules

Global Glimpses October 15, 2009

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FSA Clears Way for Greater Investor Scrutiny

Global Glimpses August 19, 2009

UK regulator the Financial Services Authority has published guidance aimed at making it easier for shareholders to push companies to raise their governance standards.Institutional shareholders have been accused of not challenging companies about their corporate governance practices in the run up to the financial crisis. But they in turn have...

Audit Committees Feel “Very Effective,” Despite Crisis

Global Glimpses July 09, 2009

The quality of corporate governance among the world’s leading companies has been widely criticized of late, with some blaming poor boardroom practice in the financial sector for the global downturn. But audit committee members around the world feel they have been doing a good job, according to a new KPMG...

G8 Pledge Ambitious New Governance Standards

Global Glimpses June 18, 2009

Finance ministers from the G8 countries have pledged to create a new international code of corporate governance, recognizing that poor board governance was a major cause of the financial crisis.Concluding a summit held in the Italian town of Lecce, the ministers published what they called “The Lecce Framework,” a document...

U.K. Investor Groups Pledge Harder Push on Governance

Global Glimpses June 11, 2009

A group representing the U.K.’s four main institutional investor bodies has published proposals aimed at giving shareholders a stronger voice in corporate governance issues.The Institutional Shareholders’ Committee (ISC) accepted that the financial crisis showed a need for investors to engage with companies more effectively. Such shareholders have been criticized by...

Tweedie Defends Speed of IFRS Reforms

Global Glimpses June 11, 2009

International Accounting Standards Board chairman Sir David Tweedie has defended the organization’s response to the financial crisis in front of a meeting of European ministers in Luxembourg.Tweedie told European Union finance ministers that he “took very seriously” their concerns about “the pace and substance” of IASB’s accounting standards reform. And...

ACCA Calls for Robust Governance Regulation

Global Glimpses June 05, 2009

The regulation of corporate governance practices in the U.K. is “so light touch as to have very little impact at all,” according to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. There is “a very clear need for more robust regulation in this area,” the global accountancy body said.The ACCA said regulators...

IASB Promises Quicker Financial Instruments Reform

Global Glimpses May 29, 2009

The International Accounting Standards Board has accelerated its project to replace controversial accounting rules on financial instruments.An update published after a recent board meeting says it will now publish an exposure draft on the classification and measurement of financial instruments by July 2009. Previously it said the proposals would not...

Banks Need to Boost CRO Role

Global Glimpses May 08, 2009

European banks need to boost the profile and clout of their chief risk officers (CROs), as too many businesses sidelined this important role in the run-up to the financial crisis, according to a report from governance consultancy Nestor Advisors.The report—Bank Boards and the Financial Crisis—found that in 2007 only one...

G20 Told to Leave IASB Alone

Global Glimpses April 30, 2009

The International Accounting Standards Board must be allowed to focus its efforts on a fundamental rewrite of its rules on financial assets and should not be forced to respond to every short-term policy shift announced by the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board, according to a body created to advise both...

Global Financial Instruments Standard Coming Soon

Global Glimpses March 26, 2009

The International Accounting Standards Board and the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board have agreed to push through a review of their rules on accounting for financial instruments.Both boards said they would release proposals to replace their existing rules in this area with a common standard “in a matter of months,...

Euro Governance Forum Wants Better Pay Disclosure

Global Glimpses March 25, 2009

A new executive pay code published by a European Commission advisory body would require companies to disclose more information about directors’ pay. The move follows a growing row about levels of pay and “rewards for failure” across Europe.The European Corporate Governance Forum, which published the code, wants legislation to force...

U.K. Reviews Governance Code for ‘Comply or Explain’

Global Glimpses March 18, 2009

The U.K’s lead corporate regulator has launched a review of its Combined Code on Corporate Governance, which sets out the governance principles that listed companies are expected to follow.One specific question the Financial Reporting Council will look at is whether the “comply or explain” approach, the cornerstone of the Code,...

U.K. Regulator to Investors: Ask Tougher Governance Qs

Global Glimpses March 11, 2009

Institutional investors must do more to hold companies to account and question them about their corporate governance practices, according to the chief executive of the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority, Hector Sants.Speaking at the U.K National Association of Pension Funds’ investment conference, Sants said shareholders must take responsibility—acting on their own...

Failure of Trust Between EU Financial Regulators

Global Glimpses February 17, 2009

A leading shareholder group has called for an inquiry into whether the European Union should create a single financial watchdog, saying that the credit crunch has caused a “failure of trust” between the EU’s national regulators.The Association of British Insurers (ABI) made the call when it launched a plan to...

Europe's Big Banks Slow on Fair-Value Opt-out

Global Glimpses January 08, 2009

Many European Union financial companies—including a majority of the biggest ones – have decided not to apply a relaxed accounting rule that would allow them to shelter assets from a fair value write-down. But those that have used the get-out have not disclosed enough about what they are doing, according...

IASB Moves to Fix Rushed Reclassification Ruling

Global Glimpses December 23, 2008

Act in haste, repent at leisure: The International Accounting Standards Board has announced plans to fix a problem with an amendment to financial instrument reclassification rules that it rushed through in October.Acting under intense pressure from European politicians—pressure that almost made IASB Chairman Sir Davie Tweedie resign—in October the Board...

FSA: No Combined Code for Foreign Cos.

Global Glimpses December 03, 2008

The Financial Services Authority has scrapped a proposal that would have made the Combined Code on Corporate Governance apply to many foreign companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.Under a set of proposals published in January—aimed at making London’s complex listing categories easier to understand—the FSA suggested that foreign companies...

Auditors Escape Crunch Criticism So Far

Global Glimpses November 26, 2008

The auditing profession has come out of the credit crunch relatively unscathed, with few observers blaming firms for failing to spot the problems that got banks into difficulty, according to Paul Boyle, chief executive of Britain’s Financial Reporting Council. “So far, at least, auditing has had a good crisis,” Boyle...

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