In this Policy Brief, PIIE Visiting Fellow Nicolas Véron provides a comprehensive analysis of the strategic challenges facing the attempt to harmonize the world's accounting practices through the global spread of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). After taking stock of the...

The constantly developing global financial system needs better risk assessments than Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) have been collectively able to deliver during recent crises. More comprehensive public disclosure by issuers on their financial risks, which would not require intermediation by...

Although the United States and the European Union were both seriously impacted by the financial crisis of 2007, resulting policy debates and regulatory responses have differed considerably on the two sides of the Atlantic. In this paper the authors examine the debates on the problem posed by...

The European Union will have to put forth significant effort to develop its own financial regulation system in the absence of strong momentum towards global standards. Nicolas Véron compares US and EU regulatory responses to the global financial crisis and then breaks down the specific areas of...

Two major shifts in the global financial regulatory landscape are likely impeding harmonization of global financial regulation: financial multipolarity, meaning the rise of emerging-market economies such as China and the impact of this trend on decision-making at the global level, and financial...

The European Union's aggressive response to the global financial crisis has prevented financial meltdown, but the continent's banking industry remains very fragile. Experts estimate coming losses in excess of $500 billion, with very little written down so far. These losses plus the problems in...

The IFRS 8 standard on operating segments was included in the IASB-FASB convergence program in February 2006 and subsequently adopted by the IASB in November 2006, in spite of widespread negative sentiment about it among investors and other users of financial statements, which the IASB should...

This Working Paper presents a novel dataset documenting the demographics of the world’s 500 largest companies by market capitalization, as of 30 September 2007. Assigning a birth date to a large company is not a straightforward exercise and involves a measure of judgment, which possibly...

European Union (EU) countries offer a unique experience of financial regulatory and supervisory integration, complementing various other European integration efforts following the Second World War. Financial regulatory and supervisory integration was a very slow process before 2008, despite...

This paper presents a holistic description and assessment of the European Union's financial services policy since the start of financial crisis in mid-2007. The decade-long sequence is divided into four themes, in broadly chronological order: the initial reaction to the 2007-08 financial shock;...