- Securities Fraud Class Action Filings Plunge
"I think we are seeing the effects of a tougher and smarter campaign against white collar fraud by the SEC and Department of Justice," says Stanford Law School Professor (and former SEC Commissioner) Joseph Grundfest. [more]
- Are Boards to Blame in Backdating Scandal?
Academics at Harvard and Cornell have released a new study of stock-option grants made to directors of US companies that claims to present evidence that outside directors' option grants "have been favorably timed to an extent that cannot be fully explained by sheer luck. [more]
- Breaking Down Barriers to Growth
Global growth will slow in 2007 as ongoing political crises rattle consumers and capital markets and economic imbalances push up prices and cut into trade. [more]
- Inflation Scare Over (For Now)
With the energy price surge behind us and a stable Consumer Price Index (CPI), most economists are saying that key inflation measures should be within the Fed's comfort zone in the coming year. [more]
- A Best-Case Scenario for Pandemic Planning
National and global agencies say that the occurrence of a human pandemic influenza is a matter of "when" rather than "if," likely to disrupt organizations on a much longer and more widespread basis than a Category 5 hurricane, a terrorist attack or most other kinds of natural or man-made disasters. [more]
- DOJ Sets New Policy on Indictment for Corporate Fraud
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty has announced that the Department of Justice is revising its corporate charging guidelines that federal prosecutors use in deciding whether and when to indict corporations for criminal fraud. [more]
- Most Restatements Due to Basic Accounting Errors
SEC deputy chief accountant Scott Taub told attendees at the annual conference of Financial Executives International (FEI) that about 55 percent of recent company restatements were due to the misapplication of basic accounting rules or data integrity problems. [more]
- Huron Consulting Group Releases Audit Committee Research Report
Huron Consulting Group has released its Audit Committee Research report, based on a sample of more than 700 audit committee members at 178 public companies from the NASDAQ 100 and Fortune 100 listings. [more]
- How Technology Is Changing Auditing
Audit processes are undergoing a sea change, driven by the mutual evolution of better software tools for analysis and tighter standards for documenting and testing internal controls. [more]
- Information Governance: The Link to Better Enterprise Performance
Aligning corporate governance, risk management and compliance programs is the critical connection to enhancing business performance -- and getting the right IT assets in place to support these mutually dependant elements remains one of the greatest challenges for business leaders today. [more]
- Risk Management and the Board: Customization Is Key
Risk management is a key topic of concern to board members these days, both for their own careers and for the companies they oversee. [more]
- Managing Relationships with External Audit
Although most CFOs play a pivotal role in assisting their audit committee with the selection and evaluation of auditors, the degree of their involvement in those decisions varies considerably. [more]
- Best Practices in Fraud Risk Management
KPMG has published a new white paper titled Fraud Risk Management: Developing a Strategy for Prevention, Detection, and Response that provides an overview of fraud risk management fundamentals, identifies regulatory mandates from around the world, and spotlights critical practices that organizations have found to be effective when tailoring a business-driven anti-fraud program. [more]
- Security Initiatives Often Lack Top-Down Support
A recent study by The Conference Board reveals a "strong disconnect" between the level of support executives express for corporate security initiatives and the level of influence they actually have over security policy. [more]
- Study Reveals Leading Ethics Topics
Corporate ethics and compliance training firm Integrity Interactive has announced the results of a study of millions of employee compliance-training records that reveals the top ethics and compliance-training topics addressed by major corporations today. [more]
- No End in Sight for Backdating Scandal
Post-Enron corporate governance reforms should have put a halt to stock option backdating, but a just-released analysis by proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis & Co. [more]
- Updating Whistle-Blowing Mechanisms
There's still some speculation about whether the accounting improprieties at Enron and WorldCom could have been nipped in the bud if a well-designed whistleblower complaint-reporting process had been in place at these companies. [more]
- Building a Risk Intelligent Company
Growing integration of corporate governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) is pulling the finance function's attention away from the past and turning it to the future. [more]
- IMA Management Accounting Statements Now Available to the Public
- The Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) has reintroduced its Statements on Management Accounting (SMAs), which present the views of IMA (and a wealth of information) regarding management accounting and financial management issues. [more]
- Taking on Financial Fraud (and Winning)
- In a white paper released this week at the BAI Combating Payments and Check Fraud Conference in Baltimore, Steve Solberg, fraud product manager at Fortent, outlines current fraud challenges and explains how banks are protecting themselves and their customers. [more]
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