Problems in financial reporting are often blamed on the rules. In trying to outlaw the system of “smoothing” which covered up many sins the rule‐makers have been accused of simply making figures more volatile and less understandable. The author looks at the idea of performance measurement...

The latest consultation paper from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision makes some changes to its regulatory proposals for operational risk management – the risk of losses resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people or systems and external events. The author discusses...

International regulators are due to finalize the New Basel Capital Accord by the end of 2003, for implementation by banks at the end of 2006. Basel II is a response to the need for reform of the regulatory system governing the global banking industry. In this article, we review the New Basel...

The forthcoming revision of the Basel Accord will cause major changes in the capital incentives driving banks’ management decisions. The author briefly outlines the main proposals then considers the impact from the point of view of a bank treasurer. The discussion leads him to question whether...

In this extract from his new book, Handling Investment Risk , the author examines operational risk and, with case studies ranging across Nigerian fraud, the split capital trusts scandal, Chase Manhattan in Russia and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell in 1996, shows how to deal with all the issues involved.

This is an extract from an exploratory essay on liabilities and how to account for them written by Andrew Lennard, Director of Operations at the Accounting Standards Board in London. It deals with the objective of financial statements and users’ needs in that context and then provides some...

Risk adjusted performance measurement can be a difficult and expensive goal to get right or improve even with everyone supportive within the institution. If this measurement is combined with existing profitability performance measurement and elements of traditional ALM, both hopefully already...

Over the next few years the regulation of financial services companies by the Financial Services Authority in the UK will move to a single system of risk‐based supervision. The authors provide a guide to how firms should approach and implement this process which is contained in what is known...

The growth of the use of hedge funds in both the USA and in Europe has led to greater attempts to regulate the market. The authors provide a guide to the way regulations are likely to be imposed and the differences which may occur in the USA and European markets as a result.