The International Accounting Standards Board has launched a project to eliminate the inconsistent methods of fair-value measurement that crop up throughout International Financial Reporting Standards. The Board recently said that several of its standards require companies to measure assets, liabilities, and equity instruments at fair value, but they have no common definition of what “fair […]
Neil Baker
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
EU Antitrust Enforcement Gets Rough
Europe is becoming a more dangerous place to do business for companies that flout its competition laws. The European Commission is taking a more aggressive attitude toward offending companies, and its member nations are playing hardball, too—taking tougher action themselves and working with each other to share intelligence across borders. The crackdown doesn’t relate to […]
Posted inTechnology
Holland Takes a Different Tack on XBRL
If U.S. regulators want to see how they could wisely, successfully integrate XBRL technology into financial reporting, they might benefit from a visit to the Netherlands. While the United States—and Japan, and numerous other countries around the world—envisions XBRL as a way to bring more information to investors, Holland is taking a very different approach […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
SocGen Fallout; the Brits Get Tough; More
European financial firms can expect a much more unforgiving attitude from regulators following the alleged fraud at French bank Societe Generale, the biggest rogue trading scandal in financial history. While SG initially blamed its staggering loss on the activities of trader Jérôme Kerviel—whom the bank originally called a “genius of fraud”—evidence is mounting that the […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Merger Changes Hit IFRS; London Listing; More
Businesses that file financial statements according to International Financial Reporting Standards have been warned to study carefully how recent changes to merger accounting under IFRS might affect them. The International Accounting Standards Board recently finished revisions to its standards for mergers and acquisitions as part of a joint project with the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
UK Companies Act: New Tasks for Directors
Businesses throughout the developed world are under pressure to behave in socially responsible ways, and no doubt many do. But following the introduction of new laws in the United Kingdom, directors of companies registered there are now legally required to think beyond the bottom line. And if they don’t, they could be sued by shareholders, […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Shareholder Activists Raise Ire at German Proposal
An effort in Germany to keep foreign investors at bay has sparked an uproar among governance activists, who say new legislation to keep the so-called “locusts” in check will also hamper efforts to raise boardroom standards and encourage responsible share ownership. At issue is Germany’s Risk Reduction Act, which expands the scope of what it […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Why EU’s Microsoft Decision Matters to You
It took European regulators nine years to win their titanic antitrust battle against Microsoft. Other companies are likely to feel the implications a lot more quickly. Legal experts say the rebuke of Microsoft by the European Court of First Instance (the second-highest court in the European Union) is a resounding victory for the European Commission. […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
U.K. Tries to Co-opt Third-Party Guidance
The United Kingdom’s top corporate regulator has introduced another important phase of its plan to adopt a more principles-based approach to compliance: a new framework for recognizing guidance produced by third parties. The framework is an important part of the Financial Services Authority’s move to ditch many of the detailed requirements in its regulatory rulebook […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
U.K. Companies Grumble On IFRS
Publicly traded companies in the United Kingdom have just about come to grips with their transition to International Financial Reporting Standards, a new survey suggests, but they still see few benefits to the move, and some still have major concerns. Most of the companies in the study had produced their second set of results under […]