Search Results for: accountancy

By RUSSELL BERMAN

THE ROUNDTABLE convened in Washington DC by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to examine American accounting practices has heard little support for a major overhaul of fair value accounting rules during its second meeting. Instead, financial industry professionals urged regulators to focus on smaller changes to improve mark-to-market reporting.…

BY SARAH BROWN

A FORMER chairman of America’s federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has called on the incoming Obama administration in the USA to start working on accounting reforms as soon as the new president takes office on January 20.

Speaking to Accountancy Age a day after the decisive election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States, William M Isaac said: "I think generally that our accounting rules, as well as the way in which we set them, ought to be a very high priority for the Obama administration."…

BY RUSSELL BERMAN

AS policymakers in Washington DC and in capitals worldwide contemplate changes in accounting standards to stem the financial meltdown, one of the men leading the charge against the mark-to-market requirement is Wayne Abernathy.

He is the executive vice president for financial and regulatory affairs at the American Bankers Association (ABA), an influential trade group that for years has railed against so-called fair value accounting.…

BY JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN

BARACK Obama, the frontrunner presidential candidate, has been silent on issues of importance to the accountancy profession, such as whether he is for suspending fair value accounting principles, despite the financial turmoil affecting US markets.

Senator Obama’s opponent in the race for the White House, John McCain, has said twice he favours suspending fair value accounting requirements in a bid to ameliorate the credit crisis.…

BY JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN

EMPLOYEES of the big four accountancy firms are almost twice as likely to donate money to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign than to John McCain’s. A search of campaign contribution database at OpenSecrets.org shows nearly 640 employees at the big four have contributed to Senator Obama’s campaign, while only 326 employees have donated to Senator McCain.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) third money laundering directive should have been transposed into national legislation by December last year across the EU. But some EU member states and professional organisations have found its provisions difficult, particularly the introduction of a risk-based approach to the application of anti money laundering disciplines.…

BY JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN

THE ACCOUNTANCY profession in the United States might think its day of reckoning came and went in 2002. But those who thought that the Sarbanes Oxley Act was the final word in regulation for the accounting profession may be in for a rude surprise.…

BY SARAH BROWN

THOMAS Jones, the British vice chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has told Accountancy Age that his organisation would be working closely with the United States’ Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to work toward a cohesive response to concerns about fair value rules.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

NO official global body exists to help in assessing the quantity and quality of anti money laundering schools, colleges and consultants throughout the world, but the number must certainly run into the thousands – and by far the majority of them are in the US.…

By Keith Nuthall

International News Services has an unorthodox correspondent called Belinda Blessed. She is unusual, in that she does not actually exist. She is a virtual reporter and is operated by agency writers who report on the virtual world Second Life.

Corporations, universities, governments, and international organisations have all built virtual offices on islands in Second Life. They use these spaces to have meetings, where digital representations of their employees, officials, academics and students can converse when they cannot meet physically. Second Life also offers these organisations opportunities to offer and deliver services, publish information and marketing material and even sell goods.…