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Editor's blog

SEC commits to work plan but the debate is not yet over

Last week the US financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, issued a statement confirming its support for global accounting standards and for the convergence programme between US GAAAP and international financial reporting standards (IFRS). So does that mean the argument has been won?

Convergence backed - but under threat

The adoption, implementation, and enforcement of international financial standards is crucial, according to the latest IFAC Global Leadership Survey. This, however, may be easier said than done despite the huge progress already made in establishing international financial reporting standards

Changing the public's - and politicians' - perceptions won't be easy

Writing up a couple of stories for the March issue, coming out in just over a week, I was looking at the transcripts from two sets of hearings, running more or less in parallel, in the Scottish and UK parliaments. The contrasts between the two were not so much in content as in style

Cleaning up the Commons – is it too expensive?

The annual cost of running the body set up to monitor MPs’ expenses is six times the amount MPs were asked to repay. Is this a price worth paying?

The cost of a long-term relationship

One accountancy firm reports that helping clients through the recession has hit its profit margins. In the long term, it’s a price well worth paying

Recession is over but recovery is some way off

The UK’s recession is “over”, technically at least

Architects offer Sir Fred a chance to rebuild

Levelling all the blame at Goodwin lets too many others off the hook

(More) reasons to be cheerful

In the week that the biopic of the late, great Ian Dury hits the big screen, it seems appropriate for the theme of my first blog in 2010 to follow one of Dury’s big hits: “Reasons to be cheerful (Part 3)”

Frozen debate

It’s ironic that, in a week when the world’s leaders were arguing over global warming, Europe and North America are suffering a big freeze

Utilities, not buccaneers

HM Treasury’s latest paper on banking reform spells out the cost of the implicit guarantee that banks cannot be allowed to fail in the way other businesses fail

An answer to the bonus question?

Darling’s blow for bank bonuses is driven by political logic even if its economic logic can be questioned

Bonus row highlights Darling’s dilemma

The threat from RBS board directors to resign if the Chancellor of the Exchequer vetoes bonus payments at the bank shows how unclear is the position of the Government’s stake in the “nationalised” banks

Is ‘risk management’ a hopeless cause?

Respected economist Lord Skidelsky is arguing that the current financial crisis not only proves that mainstream academics were wrong to trust the rationality of the market, but also that it shows that believing we can price, manage and control risk is a dangerous illusion

'W' spells trouble for Scottish economy

Trying to follow economists’ predictions for the shape and timing of the recovery from recession can leave you floundering in an alphabet soup of different scenarios. For Scotland, however, the recovery looks ominously W-shaped

Brown’s Tobin tax call wasn’t such a dud

It may not have won over the G20, but Gordon Brown’s call for a levy on international financial transactions should not be dismissed out of hand

Wise advice from Global Scots

Earlier this week I sat in on the “Global Scot” conference hosted by Scottish Enterprise in Glasgow

Too big – or just too few - to fail?

The latest FRC report on audit choice underlines that the fact that the demise of a Big Four firm would have cataclysmic effects for the market as a whole

King’s blast at banks is highly significant

Bank of England governor Mervyn King laid into the banks, and failure to reform the banking system, in a speech in Edinburgh this week. Could that be a sign of reforms to come?

MPs should stop complaining and pay up

I have been trying very hard this week to summon up some sympathy for the aggrieved Westminster MPs who feel that the latest crackdown on their expenses claims amounts to a witch-hunt

Tax reform could be a lifeline for the developing world

Tax really is a matter of life and death for people living in the world’s poorest countries, according to anti-poverty campaigners

Risk and the unknown unknowns

Risk management is top of the agenda, for now, but how long will that last?

Bonus of contention

Even the chairman of the Financial Services Authority is gunning for bankers’ bonuses, and he chose to make his point in the very heart of the City of London

How Rover was driven to the wall

The inspectors’ report into the collapse of MG Rover reveals that the “unacceptable face of capitalism” is alive and well in the 21st century

Celebrations would be premature for “end of recession”

After more than a year of economic doom, gloom and sheer fear, the indicators finally seem to be going in a positive direction. But does that mean we’re out of danger?

A hard act to follow

Scottish Enterprise chief Jack Perry is appearing today at his last annual public meeting

Are growth measures achieving their aims?

A study published by PWC suggests the VAT rate cut may not have influenced shoppers’ spending behaviour

Tax authorities get tough on offshore evasion

Advisers, as well as their clients, could be at risk of penalties if they don’t come clean about overseas assets

Bank profits raise more questions

Banks are making money again and the weather forecast for the summer is unsettled and rainy. Yes, normal service has been resumed

What is UK Financial Investments actually for?

Leading civil servant John Kingman is leaving UKFI for the private sector. His successor will need a clear set of objectives from the outset

Is accountancy really elitist?

A study on social mobility and the professions finds that the UK has become more class-ridden, not less

We really want your feedback

If you’re reading this then there’s a good chance you are pretty net-literate. But how do you relate to the whole online world, and how do you want to relate to CA Magazine and the Institute? Let us know, and you could win a Samsung Netbook!

Rover: we’re still in the dark

The inspectors’ report into the demise of MG Rover has been referred to the Serious Fraud Office, but the report is still unpublished and the latest announcement poses more questions than it answers

A 150-year sentence won’t get $65bn back

Bernard Madoff can expect to spend the rest of his life in prison after being sentenced to 150 years

Too big to fail, or just too big?

While the Government is keeping quiet so far about what comes next in banking reform, the Bank of England and Financial Services Authority are stirring up a debate about it

A new approach to transparency

The MPs second homes scandal doesn’t get any less murky

Reasons to be cheerful (part 2)

A small flurry of good news stories has brought some optimism back to Scotland’s beleaguered financial community. But we’re a long way from seeing the end of this difficult period.

Succession planning at Scottish Enterprise

Jack Perry has overseen major changes at Scottish Enterprise, but stability for the organisation going forward is required if the Scottish Government wants to attract the very best to succeed him

Age concerns

Older workers are ready to keep going past a conventional retirement age, but will employers wake up and realise what they have to offer?

Fraud culture starts at the top

A new survey on employees’ attitudes to fraud and unethical behaviour throws some disturbing light on the state of business throughout Europe

MPs pay the price for expenses debacle

The mess that Westminster MPs have got into over second home allowances is a neat illustration of the difference between rules and principles

Ownership but no accountability

Banks are being asked to strengthen their balance sheets, but also to carry on lending to businesses and homebuyers. Maybe there should be more transparency about how this dilemma is being addressed

It's squeaky pip time

Taxing the rich has long been a rallying cry for Old Labour, but will next year’s 50p top rate of income tax actually raise any more cash for the beleaguered Treasury?

A rock and a hard place

It’s make or break for our Chancellor, but the measures that will save or damn him are not those outlined in yesterday’s Budget

A question of class?

A Government study on social inclusiveness has found that, if anything, through the last few decades the professions have become even more the preserve of those from relatively well-off families.

Celebrating the first year online

CA Mag online celebrated its first birthday this week. This has been one of the most exciting periods in my time with the magazine, not least because of the leap from a monthly print publication schedule to a medium that is pretty much instantaneous

Breaking windows won’t fix the problem

A minority of hardcore protesters are drawing attention away from a serious debate

Regulating our way to disaster

Leading economist Professor Avinash Persaud believes that the banking crisis has happened because of a fundamental misunderstanding of risk

The true and fair view: inconvenient but essential

The G20 summit has been warned by ICAS not to dispense with transparent financial reporting for the sake of smoothing out market volatility

Reasons to be cheerful

This week I thought I’d take a break from undermining the fabric of Western capitalism and focus on some positive developments

‘Shredding’ the rule of law?

The row over Sir Fred Goodwin’s pension is a convenient distraction from questions the government would rather we weren’t asking

A high price for survival

At some point, government and regulators will have to decide whether they are beating the banks up for lending too much, or not enough

Banking on experience

This week, more from the bank chiefs’ Parliamentary grilling

Time for your bonus question

The row over banking bonuses was completely predictable. So why is Gordon Brown on the back foot?

Animal charities in fundraising dogfight

A cold climate for giving has dragged two leading animal welfare charities into an unseemly squabble.

Gong hei fat choy!

This Monday saw the start of the Year of the Ox, in the Chinese calendar, and like the ox, businesspeople can look forward to a hard slog in 2009.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...

The ‘most depressing day of the year’ has been followed by a very scary week, as yet another government bail-out for the banking sector has done little or nothing to bring banks’ share prices back out of free-fall

More billions thrown at liquidity problem

A large pile of taxpayers’ money has been committed to ensuring the banks’ survival. Now the question is how the rest of business can be helped.

Swift, yes. Decisive, yes. But right?

Prime Minister Gordon Brown looked at his best when the economic crisis was at its worst. Now, we’re all waiting to see some positive results.

Here's to a prosperous 2011

If businesses and consumers had their way, we’d just skip the next two years. Unfortunately we don’t have that option.

Driving home for Christmas? Chance would be a fine thing!

Just one small example of how the credit crunch is affecting business has left this writer in a less than festive mood.

What's that behind the hedge?

Bernie Madoff’s $50 billion hedge fund fraud starkly shows up how unregulated and risky this sector still remains. Why should the ordinary punter worry? Because we are investing in hedge funds by proxy, whether we know it or not.

When the “worst case scenario” becomes the norm

As retail becomes the next sector to face the crunch, business plans for all companies need to be tested against the worst possible outcomes.

CA Magazine picks up another award!

Last Thursday’s PPA Scotland Awards proved to be a good night for CA Magazine.

Smart move - or desperate measure

It’s too early to say whether the package of fiscal measures to boost the economy in Alistair Darling’s Pre Budget Report represents bold but astute action, or a reckless gamble with all of our futures.

Bail-out policy loses sight of fairness

The government’s insistence that “it’s our way or no way” on the Lloyds TSB/HBOS merger means there is no level playing field.

Money talks, and for HBOS it’s still saying ‘merger’

It looks increasingly as if the prospect of an Asian white knight for HBOS is not going to materialise despite the best efforts of three giants of Scottish banking.

So it’s Obama!

The US presidential election delivered a true moment of history. But what lies in store for the President-elect?

Iceland joins the axis of evil?

40,000 Icelanders are incensed that the UK’s anti-terror legislation was used to freeze their banks’ UK assets, but there’s a wider lesson in all this

Why taxpayers should seek a high price for helping out the banks

Last week, huge sighs of relief followed the US House of Representatives’ vote in favour of president Bush’s bank rescue package. The trouble is, it does not seem to have done much to reassure troubled markets around the world.

New deal in financial regulation will inevitably follow the bailout

Shocking. It’s not too strong a word to describe what happened to financial institutions on both sides of the Atlantic over the past two weeks.

Finding our place in a changing world

The CA Conference at Gleneagles last week focussed on understanding economic and social change, and its impact on business. Meanwhile the world of football gave us a good example of change, on a grand and unexpected scale.

Equality Act may harm those it seeks to help

Bringing in positive discrimination through the back door does no favours to those who have made it on merit

Another body blow for the final salary pension

Not content with closing schemes to new members, employees are increasingly barring existing scheme members from topping up their DB pensions

Celebrating entrepreneurial success... with the Spice Girls?

Some thoughts from the winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year awards

2p could be a tax too far for UK's motorists

The deferred fuel tax hike, set to take effect in October, is set to add to the Governmnet's unpopularity

Honesty is best policy for business communicators

One of TV's best known newsreaders gave some sound advice at the Communicators in Business awards

Family businesses in the limelight

A Government reception for the Scottish Family Business Association was a welcome gesture of support for this often neglected sector

Twenty years on: the legacy of MCRV

Making Corporate Reports Valuable was a seminal publication, but even after two decades, some of its ideas are still seen as too radical

Can auditors really keep it simple?

KPMG's John Griffith-Jones is arguing for an audit "kite mark" that everyone can understand. It's a tough challenge, but worth attempting.

Entering the blogosphere

CA Magazine is going online after more than a century in print

Jobs for CAs (link opens in new window)

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