The total damages awarded against Japanese companies for errors in their financial statements increased four-fold to a record 45.9bn yen last year, according to a new report. Economics consultancy Nera, which published the analysis, said the 2009 damages dwarfed the level recorded for 2008 – 9.9bn yen – and represented more than the total amount […]
Global Glimpses
Posted inFrom the Archive
IASB Moves to End Impenetrable Insurance Accounting
The International Accounting Standards Board this week launched a draft new standard on insurance accounting, which it said would put an end to a mish-mash of national rules that produced “impenetrable” financial reports. But the draft led to immediate warnings of heavy compliance costs and a fundamental shift in accounting practices that could particularly disadvantage […]
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U.K. Plans Corporate Super-Regulator
The U.K. government is planning to create a new super-regulator to set and enforce financial reporting rules, corporate governance standards, and securities regulations for listed companies. This work is currently shared between the Financial Reporting Council and the Financial Services Authority. But the government has already announced a commitment to scrap the FSA; now it […]
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New Zealand Regulator Highlights Poor Disclosures
Companies listed on New Zealand’s stock exchange need to improve their corporate governance disclosures on ethics, risk, executive pay, and shareholder relations, according to the national securities regulator’s latest review of corporate governance reporting. A review by the country’s Securities Commission found that the most-ignored corporate governance rule was one that requires companies to “consider […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
U.K Regulator Slates Poor-Quality Audits
Too many audits of U.K.-listed companies are simply not good enough, according to the country’s independent regulator of audit quality. The Audit Inspection Unit, part of the Financial Reporting Council, said that 11 percent—eight in total—of the audits it looked at in its 2009/10 review needed “significant improvement,” a proportion it said was “too high.” […]
Posted inAnti-Bribery
U.K. Bribery Law Gets April 2011 Start Date
The U.K.’s new corporate offense of failure to prevent bribery will take effect from April next year, the country’s new government has announced. The offense came onto the statute book when the previous government finalized the Bribery Act 2010 in its last days in office this May, but a date for its implementation was left […]
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Rare Sanction Leaves Investor in the Cold
A U.K. financial regulator has wielded rarely used powers to ban a high-profile activist investor from takeover deals for three years. The Takeover Panel, which enforces U.K. laws relating to mergers and acquisitions between listed companies, formally “cold shouldered” Brian Myerson and two of his associates. The ruling is believed to be only the second […]
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IASB to Consider Biodiversity Standard
The International Accounting Standards Board is to consider new rules to make companies measure and report their impact on biodiversity and ecosystems. The move follows a report from a United Nations-backed body that calls on standard setters to play a part in forcing companies to treat the loss of biodiversity and ecosystems (BES) as a […]
Posted inBoards & Shareholders
Top Dutch Court Throws Out Shareholder Complaint
The Netherlands Supreme Court has thrown out calls by activist investors for an investigation of boardroom practices at ASM International, the Dutch semiconductor company. Judges overturned a ruling by a lower court, which had ordered an investigation at the behest of two shareholders, Hermes Focus Asset Management and Fursa Alternative Strategies. In August 2009 the […]
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Norway Wants Boards to Cap Performance Pay
Companies with a share listing in Norway face a cap on any performance-related part of executive pay under a proposed new version of the country’s corporate governance code. The Norwegian Corporate Governance Board, which maintains the country’s code, says the revised version will require an absolute limit to performance-related remuneration, and for a company’s remuneration […]