Basel 2 has been the subject of intense debate amongst bankers around the world. It will replace the original Basel Accord of 1988, but unlike the latter it looks as if the new Accord will undermine the global consensus. It is a costly exercise and the heightened risk of regulatory arbitrage may...

There have been many efforts at improving corporate governance in the last few years following the spate of American corporate scandals. The reforms have resulted in the focus now moving to one of the most glaring anomalies in the link of safeguards against the risk of the integrity of financial...

Special purpose entities, generally known as SPEs, have been the bane of everyone in the risk management and the asset management business. But they can also be extremely useful. Now, post‐Enron, further rules have been put into place to ensure that SPEs are clearly identifiable and their...

2004 is the year when companies around the world need to move their financial reporting to the rules laid down by the International Accounting Standards Board. In this article the chairman of that board, Sir David Tweedie outlines what this change will mean. He also points out that the success...

The author, technical director of the UK’s biggest accounting body, assesses how businesses will cope with new financial reporting rules in 2004 and predicts that an emphasis on reporting on prospective financial information will come to the fore.

The author, one of the leading business thinkers in the USA and a former Harvard Business School professor, puts forward his hopes and fears for the year 2004. He hopes that the worlds of financial reporting and corporate governance will become clearer and more effective but he worries that...

The author, the European Commission’s chief of financial reporting in financial markets, argues that 2004 could be a year of crisis or a year of progress. Which it will be depends on whether financial reporting rises to the challenges which the European Commission has created. He suggests that...

The investment strategies which pension funds need to put into place are complex and, in recent years, have been changing rapidly. The author looks at how change is affecting the landscape and at what risk strategies need to be put into place as well.

This is a briefing by the author on his PD Leake lecture given at the Chartered Accountants’ hall earlier in the year. In it he examines the rise and rise of the risk industry and assesses the changes it has wrought in business life. He argues that unless the rise is halted we will see the...