From Paul Collier in Prospect magazine: Corporate opacity is not inadvertent: it is the cumulative achievement of the sustained effort of some of the most brilliant professional minds on the planet. These people should hang their heads in shame. In advanced economies their actions undermine the tax base and the public spending essential for the
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The follwoing is very good news from the Telegraph: A review of the controversial International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has been sanctioned by Commissioner Michel Barnier to start early this year, in what amounts to a major breakthrough in a long-running campaign supported by The Daily Telegraph. Investors from 10 leading groups – including Threadneedle Investments,
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The following letter was in the FT this morning: Sir, The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards recently announced its intention to establish a panel to look into tax, audit and accounting issues. The panel is – among other things – considering whether the International Financial Reporting Standards contributed “to a box-ticking culture to the exclusion
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Green MEP Sven Giegold tabled a question to the European Commission in July asking about the EU’s position on the IASB’s revision to its constitution that has downgraded its obligation to anyone but those people who use accounts to make investment decisions. I discussed that issue here. Now the Commission has replied as follows: Answer given by Mr Barnier on
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Hackgate (as it now seems to be called on Twitter at least) is not, I venture to suggest just about hacking, Rupert Murdoch and his acolytes, one rotten newspaper or even the media as a whole. It is about a systemic failure of responsibility and accountability, assisted by massive opacity. That opacity has in turn led to three things. The first is
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I’m not a great fan of the Daily Mail and its Sunday counterpart: their politics are rarely the same as mine. But there’s a not a shadow of a doubt they are a good bellwether of national sentiment, whether that’s good or bad. So it’s interesting that the Mail on Sunday said yesterday: With only
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Michel Barnier, the EU Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services was in London on Friday. He met Vince Cable. I gather Vince confirmed the UK’s commitment to country-by-country reporting for the extractive industries. Then Barnier met the International Accounting Standards Board and is reported to have said: We would be particularly interested in continuing
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There’s widespread coverage of the fact that Ireland’s had a fifth go at estimating how but its banks are, and has upped the estimate to €70bn, a cool €24bn increase on the last time. This time they say that’s it. Well, I have a message for Ireland – I think you said that last time
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From the FT this morning: From Henry Banyenzaki MP. Sir, News that the European Union is to pass legally binding measures on country by country reporting for extractive companies has given a lift to transparency campaigners here (“EU closer to adopting financial reform similar to US”, March 4). The committee I chair in parliament soon
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