Financial firms that fall foul of the U.K’s lead regulator face a three-fold increase in fines under its plan to get tougher with wrongdoers. The Financial Services Authority (FSA), which said recently it wanted firms to be more frightened by its enforcement powers, said its proposed new penalty regime reflected its determination to change behavior. […]
Global Glimpses
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
IOSCO Sets Disclosure Principles
The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has weighed in on the global debate about making financial reporting more relevant by publishing a set of high-level guidelines on corporate disclosure. Its principles—aimed at national regulators thinking of reviewing their disclosure regimes—cover the kind of information that companies should release in their periodic statements, such as […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Canada Pushes Towards Single Regulator
Canada has moved a step closer to the creation of a single securities regulator with the announcement of a new Transition Office to lead the project. The office, headed by Doug Hyndman, Chair of the British Columbia Securities Commission since 1987, has been given twelve months to publish a plan for creating a single regulator. […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
EU Members Sued for Lack of Audit Reform
The European Commission has started legal action against four of its member states for failing to implement a directive aimed at bolstering the quality of auditing and accounting in the trading bloc. The four countries in the firing line are Austria, Ireland, Italy, and Spain. The Commission said in a statement that they had failed […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
U.K. Cos. Urge Caution Over Governance Code Reform
The Financial Reporting Council should reject calls to radically revamp its Combined Code on Corporate Governance, according to some of the U.K.’s leading listed companies. The corporate regulator announced a review of the Code earlier this year after criticism that poor governance was a major cause of the financial crisis. Regulation of governance had been […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
G8 Pledge Ambitious New Governance Standards
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 that committed them to […]
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U.K. Investor Groups Pledge Harder Push on Governance
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 U.K regulator the Financial […]
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Tweedie Defends Speed of IFRS Reforms
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 he conceded that the […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
ACCA Calls for Robust Governance Regulation
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 or the government should […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
“Urgent Change” Needed to Fix Reporting
Corporate reporting is too complex and needs “urgent change,” according to a discussion paper from U.K. regulator the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). The International Accounting Standards Board should overhaul its standards so each one has an easy-to-follow structure with a clear statement of what it is supposed to achieve, the FRC said. It also called […]