Finance

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner proposed a sweeping revamp of government regulatory powers over the nation’s financial system highlighted by establishing a single agency “with responsibility for systemic stability over the major institutions and critical payment and settlement systems and activities.”

Despite the economic slump, a high number of executives are continuing to pursue divestitures or carve-outs, according to a survey conducted by Deloitte Corporate Finance.

More than 40 percent of internal auditors within the financial services sector felt that better risk management practices could have helped prevent their organization’s current financial situation, according to a just-released study from the Institute of Internal Auditors.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner did his best at filling in the blanks on the Obama administration’s plan for cleaning up the so-called “toxic assets” clogging the balance sheets of banks.

In a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner asked lawmakers to grant the Treasury Department more power to seize failing financial firms.

From Accounting Technology editor Bob Scott’s most recent popular e-letter “Consulting Insights" comes this Random Thought: “I’ve decided if I were a public official, I would run government like a business, meaning I would invest in financial instruments, treat my employees as disposable, and pay out enormous and unmerited bonuses.”

About 89 percent of the 150 audit committee members at a recent KPMG conference said that the financial crisis had caused their company’s board or audit committee to change the nature and scope of its oversight.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has asked Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to account for their retention bonus programs while the entities were losing money and even after they accepted taxpayer-funded bailouts.

The Congressional Budget Office has revised its projection of the 2009 deficit, adding another $400 million and bringing the total to a numbing $1.7 trillion.

The Obama administration has revealed the latest measure in its colossal financial rescue plan, enticing private investors to buy up to $1 trillion in troubled assets carried by banks.

Ernst & Young and Swiss bank UBS have been sued by a group of investors in Luxembourg who put money in a fund that directed 95 percent of their assets to Bernard Madoff’s firm.

The economic crisis is prompting more and more small-business owners to turn to their accountants for advice, according to a new survey.

A federal court in Texas has ruled in favor of the Internal Revenue Service as it seeks $226.6 million worth of back taxes from Sir Allen Stanford, the banker who has been accused of defrauding investors of $8 billion.

In response to public outrage over the $165 million in bonuses awarded to AIG executives, the House voted 328 to 93 to levy a 90 percent tax on the money.

The question of how to pay for universal health care could lead to a troubling answer: taxing health benefits. Congress and the Obama administration will be weighing a variety of approaches in the coming months, with the goal of offering legislation before the August recess. Some legislative leaders, such as former Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., have advocated taxing health care benefits as one way to pay for an expensive health care overhaul. Up to now, these benefits have been tax-free.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has raised the aggregate 2009 fee it assesses to public companies and other issuers to $157.4 million from $151.8 million.

Lawmakers continue to apply pressure to the Securities and Exchange Commission to reinstate a Depression-era rule that prevents traders from short-selling stocks whose share prices are falling.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a pair of proposed fair value staff positions written to provide additional guidance regarding measurements and impairments of securities, after coming under pressure at a congressional hearing to ease mark-to-market accounting standards.

David Friehling, the accountant who ran the tiny auditing firm that serviced Bernard Madoff’s broker/dealer firm, has been arrested and charged with securities and investment advisor fraud.

“A threat and an opportunity!” is how most firms in Practical Accountant’s upcoming survey of regional firms termed this recession. An opportunity because clients will need them more than ever, and a threat for obvious reasons.