Audit & Accounting

IMGCAP(1)]It’s easy for managers to overlook risks. Financial risk managers may ignore nonfinancial risks. Business managers responsible for a particular line item (such as costs) may downplay risks unrelated to their particular line item. Firms often manage their risks compartmentally — for example: the treasury department for foreign exchange and interest rates; the procurement department for commodity purchases; and the insurance department for catastrophic risks.

The group overseeing the International Accounting Standards Board has written to President Obama and the other G-20 leaders saying it is following the G-20 recommendations for dealing with fair value accounting for loans, after banking interests charged that it was not.

The banking and insurance industries have been playing arbitrage with the various accounting standards produced by U.S. and international standard-setters.

An organization representing major life and property/casualty insurance and reinsurance companies has criticized a new measurement approach for insurance contracts recommended by the staff of the International Accounting Standards Board.

IMGCAP(1)]On September 4, the President took another important step toward a more open and transparent government by announcing a new policy to voluntarily disclose White House visitor access records.

CCH has launched the CCH Learning & Development Academy, a training program for accounting firms of all sizes.

[IMGCAP(1)] Adam Wolf isthe type of guy you’d want to bring along to a networking event or have as aguest at a dinner party. He’s got a plethora of stories to tell, is a fast (andsmooth) talker, and naturally knows how to bring people who would benefit fromeach other together.

Eighty-nine percent of financial executives view mandatory conversion to International Financial Reporting Standards to be either highly likely or somewhat likely in the U.S., according to a new survey by Deloitte.

SEC officials testifying at a Senate Banking Committee hearing pledged to do more to investigate Ponzi schemes.

The American Bankers Association has written to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke asking them to raise accounting issues at the upcoming G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh in order to curb efforts by standard-setters to expand mark-to-market accounting to loans and debt instruments.