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International NewsLine
News compiled by SmartPros' editorial staff.
Report Says Lack of IAS Compliance Is Undermining IASC
LONDON, March 19, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Poor compliance with International Accounting Standards compounded with a lack of proper auditing is undermining the International Accounting Standards Committee’s work, according to the ‘International Accounting Standards Survey 2000’ published March 19 by former IASC secretary-general David Cairns. LONDON, March 19, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The UK should be 'technically' ready for membership of EMU by 2003 but the ‘Big Decision’ will be a matter of politics, according to the Ernst & Young Item Club.
LONDON, March 19, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The International Accounting Standards Committee has turned itself into a foundation as part of its ongoing restructuring initiative.
NEW YORK, March 17, 2001 (SmartPros) -- A letter leaked to a Scottish newspaper revealed "suppressed anger" within the ranks of PricewaterhouseCoopers, while rumors that the firm plans an initial public offering have crept up once again.
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 16, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is probing Raytheon, the U.S. electronics and defense company, over an alleged breach of a new rule making on disclosure of financial information, according to financial press reports.
LONDON, March 16, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Shares in KPMG Consulting have fallen by 25% in value since their launch just over a month ago. Latest figures show the shares trading at $16.25 -- they sold at up to $23.5 on the first day of trading just over a month ago.
LONDON, March 16, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- UK businesses need to consider vital human resource issues if mergers and acquisitions are to be a success, according to a new report.
LONDON, March 16, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Andersen named the partners who will be responsible
for managing the five regions that make up the firm’s global operations.
VEDBAEK, Denmark, March 16, 2001 (SmartPros) -- A European software maker is the latest company to catch the Madonna complex that appears to be spreading throughout the accounting community: NavisionDamgaard, the company formed by the December merger of Danish software giants Navision Software and Damgaard, announced it will drop Damgaard from its name and go by Navision.
LONDON, March 15, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The United Kingdom government has welcomed the European Parliament's decision to adopt an interim report on improving the regulatory environment in the European Union.
LONDON, March 15, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Accounting Standards Board's Urgent Issues Task Force has published an abstract on the date of share awards.
LONDON, March 14, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- A whopping 83 percent of accountancy firms across the globe say "no" to audit-only accountancy practices, according to a survey by Summit International.
LONDON, March 14, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Preliminary investigations by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young into irregularities at entertainment company e-district.net show that financial revenues, page impressions and registered users have been substantially overstated.
LONDON, March 13, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Investors should oppose the appointment of auditors who receive more in non-audit than audit fees, says the Pensions & Investment Research Consultants in their corporate governance guidelines published this week.
LONDON, March 13, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says that it did not put pressure on three of the Big Five accounting firms to restructure last year.
LONDON, March 13, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- At least two candidates have so far turned down the position of chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the Financial Times.
LONDON, March 9, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Former chairman Walter A. Forbes and former vice-chairman E. Kirk Shelton of Cendant Corp., the U.S.-based consumer and business services provider, are facing criminal charges of being directly involved in "knowingly and fraudulently" over-stating the earnings of Cendant and its legacy company, CUC.
BRUSSELS, March 9, 2001 (SmartPros) -- Rolf Breuer, spokesman of the board of managing directors of Deutsche Bank AG, blasted the European Union for forcing EU listed companies to adopt International Accounting Standards by 2005.
LONDON, March 7, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The accountancy profession has given a warm welcome to the Office of Fair Trading's report on the professions, which was published today.
LONDON, March 7, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The long-awaited Office of Fair Trading report on competition in the professions was published this morning and, as expected, it recommends that the professions should be subject to competition law in the same way as other businesses.
LONDON, March 7, 2001 (AccountancyMagazone.com) -- Deloitte & Touche has confirmed that it will replace Andersen as auditor of Tomkins, the engineering company troubled by alleged corporate excesses.
LONDON, March 7, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Council members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales voted this morning to keep secret redundancy estimates and other costs that will arise from the Institute's decision to restructure its district societies.
CHICAGO, March 7, 2001 (SmartPros) -- Six months after the arbitration ruling that split it from its consulting counterpart and gave it sole use of the Andersen name, professional services powerhouse Arthur Andersen has announced that it is dropping Arthur from its name and will be known simply as Andersen.
LONDON, March 6, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Home Secretary announced his intention to crack down on Britain's untouchables yesterday, when he unveiled draft clauses for the Proceeds of Crime bill.
LONDON, March 5, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Arthur Andersen has named John Ormerod as its United Kingdom managing partner.
LONDON, March 5, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has urged the Department of Trade and Industry not to raise the audit threshold from £1 million to £4.8 million, nor to abandon the requirement for private companies to have company secretaries.
ICI's Gillett to Chair CBI Taxation Committee LONDON, March 2, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Confederation of British Industry has appointed a new chairman to its taxation committee.
LONDON, March 2, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Starting pay for Canadian accountants and finance professionals is predicted to rise by 5.1 percent this year, according to Robert Half and Accountemps' salary guide for 2001.
LONDON, March 1, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants held its first open council meeting this afternoon.
LONDON, March 1, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- British business is set to fully embrace the Internet revolution over the next two to three years, according to a survey by the Confederation of British Industry and KPMG Consulting.
LONDON, March 1, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- For the first time in its 21-year history, the annual Founding Societies Award has gone to an accountancy trainer. John Anderson, who took over the family business at Caer Rhun Hall in Conwy, North Wales, in 1971, said he was "absolutely astonished" and "delighted" by the honor.
LONDON, Feb. 28, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales said it "strongly supports the creation of a Companies Commission that builds on the success of the FRC" in its response to Modern Company Law for a Competitive Economy -- the consultation document from the Company Law Review Steering Group (CLRSG).
LONDON, Feb. 28, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Two chartered accountants are being charged with a total of 28 separate counts of false accounting and theft by Stroud Magistrates Court in Gloucestershire.
LONDON, Feb. 26, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Seychelles has become the latest jurisdiction to commit to the Organization for Economic and Cooperative Development's aim to eliminate harmful tax practices by the end of 2005, safeguarding itself from appearing on the OECD's list of uncooperative tax havens, to be published in July.
LONDON, Feb. 26, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Although 55 percent of financial services companies feel that the best way to create shareholder value is through organic growth, 69 percent have undergone a corporate combination of some type in the past two years, according to a survey by Arthur Andersen.
LONDON, Feb. 25, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Graham Ward, president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales has told the European Commission that its audit independence rules will only work if they are applied uniformly across Europe.
LONDON, Feb. 23, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The International Accounting Standards Committee has published IAS 41, Agriculture, prescribing the treatment, presentation and disclosure related to agricultural activity.
LONDON, Feb. 23, 2001 (SmartPros) -- The International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) has released a draft taxonomy of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) for Financial Statements based on International Accounting Standards. LONDON, Feb. 22, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales has given its backing to radical proposals to reform and modernize the law on partnerships. Such a move, it says, is "long overdue" -- not least because the Act on which most of the rules are based is now well over a century old.
LONDON, Feb. 22, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants' next chief executive could be recruited from abroad.
LONDON, Feb. 22, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Accounting Standards Board's Urgent Issues Task Force has issued two new abstracts.
LONDON, Feb. 20, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Accountants at South Korean conglomerate Daewoo Group have been charged with fraud worth $33 billion, only days after Seoul said that it would apply for membership of two international anti-money laundering organizations.
LONDON, Feb. 20, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The European Commission "endorsement mechanism" which will approve International Accounting Standards before they are adopted in Europe, may not be as bad as some technical experts had thought.
LONDON, Feb. 16, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Accounting Standards Board has published a Discussion Paper reviewing its Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities (FRSSE) and to gauge whether the FRSSE meets users needs and whether any fundamental changes are needed.
LONDON, Feb. 16, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland has invited two lay members to join its Council -- the first move of that kind for an accountancy body.
LONDON, Feb. 15, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The provision of non-audit services to audit clients can have a significant impact on auditor independence, particularly among smaller audit firms, a new study has revealed.
LONDON, Feb. 15, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Claire Ighodaro, financial controller of British Telecommunications' Internet business BTopenworld, has been nominated Chartered Institute of Management Accountants vice president designate for the year 2001 -- 2002.
LONDON, Feb. 13, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The value of fraud dropped by 71 percent from £667 million in 1999 to £192 million in 2000, according to KPMG's Fraud Barometer.
LONDON, Feb. 13, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) has announced a new, five-year strategy to help it cope with changes in the public sector.
LONODN, Feb. 13, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants has decided to open up its London council meetings to the general public.
LONDON, Feb. 9, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- After seven years, the G4+1 group of national accounting standard-setters has disbanded after a final meeting in London on Jan. 30.
LONDON, Feb. 9, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Ernst & Young has announced that it is merging its China division with leading mainland China accounting firm Da Hua.
LONDON, Feb. 8, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Corporate taxes have fallen for the fifth consecutive year in European and the more developed Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. And it's a trend that's likely to continue into next year, according to KPMG's latest survey of international tax rates.
LONDON, Feb. 7, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- An overwhelming majority of Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales Council members this morning voted to withdraw their support for the Independent Professional Review.
LONDON, Feb. 6, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- This Friday, Arthur Levitt, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, will resign. The White House has so far given no indication of whom president George Bush will nominate as his replacement.
LONDON, Feb. 6, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Hungarian government is among a number of state shareholders that have named the Hungarian firms of Deloitte & Touche and Arthur Andersen in a claim for HUF100 billion (240 million pounds) compensation over the audits of Postabank. The government claims that the audits failed to show the size of the state-controlled bank's bad loans.
CHICAGO, Feb. 6, 2001 (SmartPros) -- In an effort to strengthen its position as a major consultancy in the United Kingdom market, Arthur Andersen has acquired the U.K. operations of e-business solutions consultancy and technology integrator Xpedior Inc. for an undisclosed sum.
LONDON, Feb. 5, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The International Accounting Standards Committee has met with criticism from some quarters over the composition of its new board.
LONDON, Feb. 2, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Grant Thornton and HLB Kidsons have announced that their planned merger is off. They say they have been defeated by the "range and complexity of the issues" which "could not be resolved to the satisfaction of both firms," and have concluded that it is "no longer in the best interests of either firm to continue discussions."
G4+1 Future Down to IASC, Says Leisenring
LONDON, Feb. 1, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The G4+1 group of accounting standard-setters is meeting in London this week to discuss its future. Ward Speaks Cautiously in Favor of Tax Harmonization At World Economic Forum
DAVOS, Switzerland, Feb. 1, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Tax harmonization could take up to 20 years to achieve and should be put at the top of countries' political imperatives, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales president Graham Ward told delegates at the World Economic Forum. LONDON, Jan. 30, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- As part of its ongoing project to develop a comprehensive set of international accounting standards for governments, the International Federation of Accountants' Public Sector Committee has released four new International Public Sector Standards exposure drafts.
LONDON, Jan. 27, 2001 (SmartPros) -- The International Accounting Standards Committee has announced the appointment of the members of the new International Accounting Standards Board, the group charged with working toward global accounting standards.
LONDON, Jan. 27, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The London Stock Exchange made history recently by confirming the appointment of its first female chief executive.
Accounting Consolidator Rocks Profession, Lays Out Strategy for Australasia
Jan. 26, 2001 (SmartPros) -- Steve Hart, executive deputy chairman of Australian consolidator Harts Australasia, employs both his wife Laura and ex-wife Shirley side by side at his Brisbane, Queensland headquarters. With some pride, Hart says that he has just bought Shirley a BMW. He remains grateful to her for having lent him his first $A1,000 ($1 US = $A0.55) to set up in business underneath his Queenslander cottage -- raised on stilts to improve ventilation -- in Brisbane many years ago. LONDON, Jan. 24, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Arthur Andersen's biggest challenge at the moment is recruitment and retention of staff, according to the firm's new chief executive Joseph Berardino.
LONDON, Jan. 24, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Former director of the Serious Fraud Office, George Staple QC, told a House of Commons Select Committee that the government should set up a national commission to investigate corruption.
Investor Group Pioneers Australian Roll-Ups
Jan. 24, 2001 (SmartPros) -- It was a rather unlikely intruder on to the Australian accounting scene in late 1998: a listed engineering/surveying/consulting company WBCM Ltd that was barely solvent The share price was in the penny-dreadful category at 20-40c and the company's market capitalization was under $A 1 million ($ 1 US = $A 0.55). Roll-Ups Snare Australian Second-Tier Firms
Jan. 23, 2001 (SmartPros) -- The Australian accounting market is in heat. Consolidators in the past 12 months rampaged through the ranks of the 200 Group C firms (fees $A2.5--$A7 million), buying about 20 of them in exchange for scrip. This scrip has typically delivered capital gains to the lucky owners of 200-300%, a nice windfall for partners who were already congratulating themselves on a good price for their life's work. LONDON, Jan. 19, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The International Federation of Accountants' formation of a forum of firms represents a "major step" forward in its program to strengthen the global financial architecture.
LONDON, Jan. 18, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- PricewaterhouseCoopers has confirmed that about 110 United Kingdom partners have been asked to leave the partnership.
LONDON, Jan. 17, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- There are substantial differences between national accounting rules around the world, and these rules are significantly different from International Accounting Standards, the seven largest accountancy firms report.
LONDON, Jan. 17, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales is looking into the roles its members and member firms have played in Equitable Life, following the discovery in December of a £1.5 billion hole in the life insurer's accounts.
BRUSSELS, Jan. 17, 2001 (SmartPros) -- In a move to strengthen BDO International's presence in the Jamaican region, the accounting and consulting organization has appointed a new Jamaican firm to its member firm network.
LONDON, Jan. 15, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- New businesses will be fined £100 unless they register with the Inland Revenue within the first three months of setting up.
LONDON, Jan. 12, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Audit Commission has appointed Alan Meekings as its new chief executive of District Audit.
LONDON, Jan. 11, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- A couple of important appointments in the world of financial reporting were recently announced.
LONDON, Jan. 10, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Organization for Economic and Co-operation and Development's fiscal affairs committee (FAC) recently announced that it has reached agreement with its members on how to apply one of the conditions determining a country's right to tax foreign e-commerce profits.
LONDON, Jan. 10, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants has published a major new guide to the Financial Services Authority and how it works, aimed at professionals who will be directly or indirectly regulated by the FSA.
LONDON, Jan. 10, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Chief executive officer of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants John Chester is to take early retirement in April, for personal and health reasons.
CHICAGO/BRUSSELS, Jan. 10, 2001 (SmartPros) -- BDO International, the world's sixth largest accounting and consulting organization, reported that its worldwide revenue for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2000 increased 14 percent to $2.01 billion, up from $1.76 billion last year.
LONDON, Jan. 8, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Profitability in the financial service sector has risen more slowly than expected, and a lack of understanding has hindered the development of e-business, according to the latest quarterly Financial Services Survey by the Confederation of British Industry and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
LONDON, Jan. 8, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Management consulting firms could face stiff penalties from the industry body if they breach rules that require them to provide independent advice to clients.
LONDON, Jan. 6, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- The Office of Fair Trading has dismissed as "speculative" reports that it has reached decisions or already advised ministers following its inquiry into competition restrictions in the professions.
LONDON, Jan. 5, 2001 (AccountancyMagazine.com) -- Chief financial officers who need to reconcile International Accounting Standards with American Generally Accepted Accounting Principles for a U.S. listing or acquisition now have access to a comprehensive comparison between international, U.S. and United Kingdom accounting principles.
Dec. 16 -- 30
Dec. 9 -- 15
Dec. 1 -- 8
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