Feb 14
After all the revelations about alleged tax evasion at HSBC’s Swiss Private Bank came a further shocking disclosure. The whistle-blower at the centre of the scandal, Herve Falciani, offered information on bank account holders in Switzerland to HM Revenue and Customs and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 2008. How can they have missed it? …
Apr 03
“Téchnē is a state of capacity to produce with a true logos,” Aristotle defined. Logos was a central notion in Greek philosophy, broadly meaning reason and discourse. Because Téchnē (Art) had its own reasoning and discourse, it was knowledge, as distinct from opinion (doxa) and mere experience. Many arts existed, among others Aristotle cited architecture, …
Feb 14
“If you want a friend on Wall Street, get a dog,” quipped Gordon Gekko, the cold-hearted protagonist of the film “Wall Street”. Now it seems that if you want a bank on the High street, then get a dog. Metro Bank “understand how important man’s best friend is to our dog-loving customers so we actively …
Sep 13
Comments on Exposure Draft ED/2013/6 I generally welcome the reconsiderations of the IASB and FASB Boards in response to the feedback on the first exposure draft, ED/2010/09. However a number of issues, inconsistencies and unnecessary complexities remain. I summarise my main concerns below. Letter to IASB re Leases ReExposure Draft
Jun 01
The Back Office can party as well as any Sales Team. But at a gathering at the end of last year of Leasing Operations and Accounting folk, the festive spirit concealed dark problems and challenges to be faced in 2013. I carried out a straw poll and somewhere between a third and a half of …
May 20
Update May 2013: Since the publication of this article in December 2010, there have been significant delays to the re-drafting of the Lease Accounting Standards ED1. The Re-Exposure Draft was finally published in May 2013 and, as expected, that it still contains significant changes for both Lessees and Lessors, including many of the issues discussed in this article. Will IT …
May 11
For Vehicle Finance, 2013 started quickly with the news on 2nd January that ZipCar, the world’s largest car-sharing network, had been acquired by Avis Budget Group for nearly $500m. At first this would not seem to be of that much immediate impact to funders, but it is a significant step for the whole car industry, …
Mar 03
Will banning working from home stop the decline of Yahoo!? Surely not? See this leading article from the Ecomomist.
Feb 19
The Food Standards Agency and the Financial Services Authority, as well as sharing an acronym, could both learn lessons about regulation. (I know that the Prudential Regulation Authority is technically becoming the regulator but the pun of the FSA was too good to resist). No tests had been done for Horse DNA in beef for …
Feb 19
The UK Financial Services Authority Mission ‘If we are to get it right, we need to aim high. So we have set ourselves a challenging corporate objective. Our mission statement will be along the following lines:- The Financial Services Authority will aim to be a world-leading financial regulator, respected for its professionalism and integrity both …