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general financial International accounting rulemakers could yet come under pressure to ease 'fair value' rules after it emerged that the European Commission has yet to sign a key agreement. The [...]

GENERAL FINANCIAL No let-up for banks' holdings Firm stance in IASB panel's draft paper There will be no let-up in the use of fair market values for banks' holdings, even [...]

People on an arduous journey tend to react badly to the idea that they are heading in the wrong direction. So PwC will have raised hackles with an internal paper [...]

Nourished by little more than sunshine and water, the balance sheet of UPM-Kymmene is expanding skywards. The Finnish paper group treats its pine and spruce 'assets' as if they were [...]

It is far easier to set deadlines than to meet them. This fact has been painfully obvious for the world's two key accounting bodies, the Financial Accounting Standards Board in [...]

Similar to the sovereign debt crisis in Greece and Ireland, defined benefit pension deficits are a problem that has crept up on many companies. Now new rule changes may cost [...]

From Mr David Damant. Sir, Your correspondents Alistair Milne (August 20) and Rupert Macey-Dare (August 21) fail to address the central purpose of fair values, as did Robert Kaplan, Robert [...]

general financial Sweeping accounting changes could be forced on small companies and even sizeable subsidiaries of larger ones under proposals to be discussed this week. The UK Accounting Standards Board [...]

A joke isn't funny if you have to explain it. Likewise, the longer spent qualifying a rule, the less workable it becomes. The Securities and Exchange Commission's report to Congress [...]

Accounting rulemakers have defended the use of 'fair value' accounting, shrugging off the criticisms levelled by bankers and insurers who claim that applying it to financial instruments in the current [...]

Accounting rulemakers have defended the use of 'fair value' accounting against attacks from bankers and insurers, who claim that applying it to financial instruments in the current turmoil risks undermining [...]

Accounting rules rarely top senior executives' agendas. But when Axa, the mighty French insurance firm, recently unveiled its results, its bosses were unusually outspoken in voicing their criticism of bean-counters. [...]

Is fair value accounting a blessing or a curse in a financial crisis? On the face of it, an approach whereby assets and liabilities are marked to market looks logical [...]

There is a fierce battle raging in the accounting world over the use of so-called 'fair value'. Courtesy of the credit crunch, the argument has even escaped into the wider [...]

From Mr Ian Mackintosh. Sir, The Association of British Insurers' criticism of the FRS 17 accounting standard for company pension schemes ('Lobbyists say FRS 17 is inadequate', March 28) raises [...]

Asecurity guard stands on a carpeted plinth, his face shielded from the sun by a parasol. Beyond him is a giant ornamental rock, polished and engraved in gold. And past [...]

What should investors or regulators think when a billion dollars of losses turns into a billion of profits at the stroke of an accountant's pen? Ford Motor's restatements last week [...]

LONDON -- A powerful coalition of investors has warned it could withdraw its support for the convergence of US and international accounting standards amid concern the project is threatening to [...]

A fortnight ago, many of the great and the good of UK accountancy gathered in London to debate the feasibility of a global adoption of principles-based accounting standards. Custodians of [...]

In a merger, two companies come together and integrate their distribution lines, brands, work forces, management teams, strategies and cultures. In a cross-border merger, however, the merging companies must also [...]

Faced with one of the most unflattering corporate comparisons imaginable, Sir David Clementi, chairman of Prudential, bristled earlier this year at the insurer's annual meeting. One puzzled private investor, who [...]

UK investors yesterday voiced alarm over a new definition of accounting objectives mooted by standard-setters, which they say could deprive shareholders of crucial information on management performance. Most members of [...]

Based on one crude but credible measure of an announcement's importance - the roll-call of dignitaries wheeled out to hear it - accounting reform in China is a big deal. [...]

As his eyes dart back and forth from his office computer, Xue Jianmin cheerily admits to spending an hour each day on one of China's numerous discussion websites. But Mr [...]

BRUSSELS and LONDON -- Europe's leading insurers yesterday called for a radical overhaul of accounting rules governing the industry, and warned that plans for a new regime being drawn up [...]

UK employers will have to spend billions more than is currently forecast to pay off all their pension promises in full, according to the actuarial profession, which advises pension schemes. [...]

Rarely has a year begun with such excitement over company financialstatements. January 1 2005 was to mark the advent of harmonised accounting across the European Union and, a few months [...]

ASB to review pensions standard 'Nobody's perfect' - as a character in the film Some Like It Hot blandly remarked when his fiancee confessed that she was a he. Nor [...]

Discontent is growing among UK companies on an international accounting standard on derivatives, the source of a long-running spat between standard-setters and the European Commission. The Association of Corporate Treasurers, [...]

LISBON -- The introduction of international financial reporting standards in Portugal, one of the smaller European Union economies using the new rules, represents a sea change in accounting that is [...]

One of the cornerstones in the drive for a harmonised, global set of international financial reporting standards is the use of 'fair value'. This sounds disarmingly simple: assets and liabilities [...]

NEW YORK -- SARBANES-OXLEY Junk bond market participants believe that restrictions imposed by the Sarbanes- Oxley account ing reforms may be partly responsible for a sudden drop in new US [...]

LONDON -- International accounting standards are prompting companies to overhaul their risk management tactics due to new rules on showing derivatives in financial statements. Several say they have had to [...]

With a stroke of the accounting pen, Vodafone Group swaps an after-tax loss of more than Pounds 8bn in 2003-04 for a profit of more than Pounds 6bn. The telecommunications [...]

The most controversial aspect of the adoption of international financial reporting standards, or IFRS, in the European Union this year is the implementation of IAS39, the standard that covers financial [...]

BRUSSELS -- The European Commission is making final preparations to launch a new accounting system on January 1 to keep better tabs on the way European Union funds are spent [...]

Financial reporting is heading for a global revolution next year as thousands of companies adopt international accounting standards. But politicians are asking if the standard-setting revolutionaries are out of control. [...]

Like the 'Y2K' conversion of computer systems for the turn of the millennium, the impending adoption by the European Union of international accounting standards is a hugely ambitious project whose [...]

The UK's leading pension group is urging the adoption of new accounting rules that could magnify the size of pension deficits recorded on the balance sheets of some of the [...]

From Mr John Tiner. Sir, I note the response of the European Commission to the UK Accounting Standards Board's statement on the problems with IAS 39 ('ASB tells UK companies [...]

LONDON -- European Union member states will be free to decide how companies apply key elements of a controversial new accounting standard on derivatives, the European Commission said yesterday. The [...]

LONDON -- European Union member states will be free to decide how companies apply key elements of a controversial new accounting standard on derivatives, the European Commission said yesterday. The [...]

A spectre is haunting the marketing world - the spectre of the number crunchers. The pain caused by this decade's bear market has injected a new type of financial rigour [...]

Sometimes going against Mr Market's sentiments does work. In January last year, I wrote that the bonds issued by PDVSA Finance, a subsidiary of the Venezuelan national oil company, were [...]